Keir Starmer refused to rule out stealth increases in income tax or National Insurance as the Government faces a £5 billion funding black hole.He could not rule out a freeze in tax thresholds – which means working people will pay more tax because of the impact of inflation.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch pointed out that millions of pensioners “face being dragged into income tax for the first time ever”. And she urged the Government to rule out introducing a brutal “retirement tax” by making even low-income older people pay income tax.
But speaking during Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons, Sir Keir refused.
He insisted that he could not comment in advance of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s budget later this year.
It comes after Labour’s u-turn on benefit cuts left the Chancellor struggling to fill a hole in the public finances.
