Rachel Reeves has been called out after Labour’s Shadow Chancellor was “caught lying” over how much tax people will pay under the Conservative Government this year.
At a campaign poster launch, Ms Reeves declared that taxpayers are being straddled with an additional tax burden of £1,200 for an average family this year.
However, this was later called out for being false and the Labour Party confirmed that the Shadow Chancellor “misspoke.”
While Ms Reeves was pointing to the fact that National Insurance will be reduced by 2p per £1 beginning January 6, 2024. The income threshold for beginning National Insurance and income tax payments has remained unchanged since April 2021.
Labour’s row back has not satisfied the Tory Party MPs with one pointing out that Ms Reeves had repeatedly made the same claim
Richard Holden MP posted on X, formerly Twitter: “How strange UK Labour claim Sir Keir Starmer ’s Shadow Chancellor ‘misspoke’ but she repeated her false claims THREE times on individual occasions today
“It seems whenever she’s not copy and pasting she has a problem remembering the facts Will RachelReeves formally retract her misleading use of statistics and end Labour’s false claims?.”
Meanwhile, the Conservative Party account shared: “From tomorrow Conservatives are cutting taxes for 27 million working people. Meanwhile Labour are caught lying because they have nothing else to say.
“You can trust us to cut taxes when it’s responsible to do so. You can’t trust Labour to do anything.”
In response to calls for an early election, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has stated his intention to hold a General Election in the latter part of the year.
Contrary to what some opposition figures have suggested, the Prime Minister stated on Thursday that his “working assumption” is against holding a spring election.
The Prime Minister said: “So my working assumption is we’ll have a General Election in the second half of this year and in the meantime I’ve got lots that I want to get on with.”
Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak faces a new by-election challenge as former energy minister Chris Skidmore resigned as an MP, citing disagreements with legislation supporting North Sea oil and gas drilling.
Mr Skidmore, who led a Government review of net zero energy, announced his resignation on Friday, calling the Prime Minister’s environmental stance “wrong and will cause future harm.”
The representative for Kingswood in South Gloucestershire warned “future will judge harshly” those supporting the Offshore Petroleum Licencing Bill, which is set to be debated in the Commons on Monday.
Announcing his resignation, Mr Skidmore said: “As the former energy minister who signed the UK’s net zero commitment by 2050 into law, I cannot vote for a Bill that clearly promotes the production of new oil and gas.
“At a time when we should be committing to more climate action, we simply do not have any more time to waste promoting the future production of fossil fuels that is the ultimate cause of the environmental crisis that we are facing.”
