Rachel Reeves admits £25bn Budget tax raid will not be easy for businesses to absorb

CHANCELLOR Rachel Reeves has admitted her £25billion Budget tax raid will not be easy for ­businesses to absorb.

She also said charities and local councils will suffer under her National Insurance Contributions increase.

It came as she refused to repeat in the Commons yesterday a promise she made at a CBI speech not to raise taxes again in this Parliament.

She told the Yorkshire Post: “I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be easy for businesses, or indeed for charities or local authorities, to absorb, especially, the national insurance increase.

“But we made a commitment during the general election, for a reason, that we wouldn’t increase taxes on working people, because over the last few years it has been working people that have had to bear the brunt of tax increases.

“And so we said income tax, VAT and national insurance on employees would not go up, and we have managed to stick to that manifesto commitment, as well as freezing the fuel duty for another year.

“That has meant we have had to increase taxes, particularly national insurance, but also some of the taxes on the wealthiest in society.”

Shadow Treasury Minister Richard Fuller last night said: “Rachel Reeves is again undermining business confidence.

“She told the CBI last week ‘there would be no more borrowing, and no more taxes’.

“Days later the Business Secretary and then the Prime Minister refused to stand by what she said. Now even she cannot repeat her own words.

“How can businesses be expected to create jobs, growth and wealth in the economy when the government offers neither stability or credibility?”