By Eniola Amadu
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has urged the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer to sack the Chancellor if she increases taxes in next month’s budget.
Labour last year vowed during its election manifesto to not raise taxes on “working people” which includes National Insurance, VAT and income tax rates.
However, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves will on November 26, probably increase taxes in her budget.
This is a result of bleak economic forecasts and a series of reversals on welfare cuts which have made it harder for her to stick to her own tax and spending rules.
“If she puts up tax, give Reeve the axe” Badenoch said at a rally in central London, to mark one year since last year’s Budget.
She said the Conservatives had mapped out plans for reducing government spending after 2029 by £47bn a year and said they had a plan to “get spending under control”.
Speaking on the plans, she revealed that about half of that would be from reducing welfare spending with other savings from measures to downsize the Civil Service, trim overseas aid, and cut the cost of the asylum system.
When challenged that the Conservatives also raised taxes despite pledging not to while in office, Badenoch attributed the cause to Covid pandemic.
“We spent £400bn paying people to stay at home. Everybody understands why we spent that money and that’s why taxes went up. We didn’t want to raise taxes,” she said to the BBC.
On the contrary, a Labour spokesperson said: “We’ll take no lectures from the Conservatives – they crashed the economy, sent mortgages rocketing and left NHS waiting lists at record highs. Yet they still haven’t apologised and they’ve done nothing to rebuild their economic credibility.
“Kemi Badenoch is pretending she can find £47bn in cuts with no detail, to fund tax cuts she can’t pay for. The Tories simply aren’t serious and they’ve learned no lessons.”
The Conservatives have accused Labour of going back on its manifesto promises by introducing £40bn worth of tax increases in last year’s Budget, which included a rise in the National Insurance rate paid by employers.
They also cited remarks made by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in November, when she assured that she would not be returning “with more borrowing or more taxes.”
“That now looks like a lie as she is gearing up to impose more punishing tax hikes” Badenoch said.
