Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg mocked Sir Keir Starmer amid confusion over Labour’s “working people” tax pledge.
The party’s manifesto promised not to increase taxes on “working people” and explicitly ruled out a rise in VAT, national insurance and income tax.
But ministers have come under pressure to define the term and who falls under it ahead of tomorrow’s Budget.
The Prime Minister yesterday insisted that “the working people of this country know exactly who they are”.
Speaking on his GB News show, former Tory Cabinet minister Sir Jacob said: “If you’re a working person, apparently you won’t be affected by the tax rises that are set to raise roughly £35 billion.
“The question is, who is a working person? The Prime Minister seems to struggle with defining different categories of people.
“Not only does the Labour Party appear to believe the woman is defined as someone who identifies as such, but apparently a working person is defined as someone who identifies as such too.
“Unfortunately, this does not provide much clarity. When asked about the definition yesterday, the education secretary Bridget Phillipson revealed that cabinet ministers count as working people; that is people earning £150,000, the top 2% of earners.
“Meanwhile, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden has said that ‘working people’ is not the right way of looking at this. That’s just a brilliant way of politicians getting out of awkward questions – just tell the interview we don’t like to look at it this way. Let’s look at it another way according to my press release.
“It is really rather convenient: The government is going to base its budget on a group of people whom it cannot define. I rather like this idea of self-defining. If you define as a working person, then surely you can’t be taxed.
“So then they get pressed on it, and they ask the media to stop asking questions, perhaps like their bung master-in-chief, Lord Alli, they think such questions are not nice.
“Or could it be because the government is about to betray its core promise at the election?
“The government is reported to be about to increase employer National Insurance contributions in a clear breach of its manifesto, which stated: ‘We will ensure taxes on working people will be kept as low as possible. Labour will not increase taxes on working people, which is why we will not increase national insurance, the basic higher or additional rates of income tax or VAT.’
“Trying to pretend that national insurance paid by employers is not a tax on working people is bogus. Employers only have a limited amount of money, and the money they pay on employing people comes from a single pot.
“The government is also expected to increase fuel duty, a tax that especially hits working people. Bear in mind that nearly 70% of working people commute by car.
“This metropolitan Islington-centric government seems to think the whole country is the same as London, where only 29% commute by car, but it isn’t. So this is again a tax on working people.
“And when so few civil servants bother to go into the office, it’s a particularly pernicious attack on car commuting private sector workers who pay the salaries of idle civil servants.
“The other tax governments expect to implement is a continued freeze on income tax thresholds, a stealth tax that hits everyone at every income percentile.
“The Tories, unfortunately did this as a means of raising revenue, which Labour, at the time, criticised, but is now going to do, which is a de facto tax rise on working people.
“So it seems that Labour has broken more of its promises, and workers, strivers and entrepreneurs will all be hit.”