TAXING TIMES
Brits will be clobbered with tax hikes in Halloween Budget, confirms Chancellor Rachel Reeves
Labour's rivals claim: 'The country will never forgive them if they break this promise'
BRITS will be clobbered with tax hikes in a Halloween Budget, the Chancellor confirmed last night.
After laying the ground for weeks, Rachel Reeves finally declared the new Labour Government has no choice but to “increase taxes in the Budget”.
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It comes after she announced a brutal cost-cutting spree earlier this week as she claimed the Tories had left a £22bn shortfall in the public finances.
Ms Reeves warned MPs her fiscal statement - due on October 30 - would involve “difficult decisions across spending, welfare and tax”.
But she finally let the cat out of the bag last night, telling the News Agents podcast: “I think that we will have to increase taxes in the Budget.
“We had in our manifesto a commitment to fiscal rules to balance day to day spending through tax receipts, and by the end of the forecast period, to get debt down as a share of GDP. Those are sensible fiscal rules to keep a grip of the public finances.
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“We also made other commitments in our manifesto, not to increase National Insurance, VAT, or Income Tax for the duration and we’ll stick with those.”
But Ms Reeves did not rule out increasing the rate of capital gains tax and make changes to inheritance tax and pension tax relief to raise revenue.
When asked about it, she said: “We will have a Budget on the 30th of October and ahead of that Budget, we will have a forecast by the Office of Budget Responsibility on this occasion, based on accurate numbers.”
Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Laura Trott hit out: “Labour promised 50 times during the election not to raise taxes on working people.
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"The country will never forgive them if they break this promise.”
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Care cap 'betrayal'
RACHEL Reeves’ decision to ditch a cap on social care costs is a “betrayal” of families, a former top care chief said yesterday.
Sir Andrew Dilnot, ex-chair of the Commission on the Funding of Care, slammed the Chancellor for scrapping plans to guarantee that no old or disabled person spends more than £86,000 on support in their lifetime.
A Department for Health and Social Care spokesman said: “We are being realistic about charging reforms.”
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