RACHEL Reeves has defended breaking Labour’s election pledge not to raise National Insurance warning she would have had to hit drivers otherwise.
But the Chancellor refused to rule out future tax rises nine times arguing she cannot fix the economy in one go despite a £40billion raid today.
Rachel Reeves speaks to our Political Editor Harry Cole in her first interview post Budget[/caption]
Chancellor Rachel Reeves displays the red budget briefcase to the media in Downing Street[/caption]
In her first interview after delivering the Budget, Ms Reeves told Never Mind the Ballots she was only just getting going.
Met with disappointing growth forecasts at her first set piece, the Chancellor insisted she needed more time to turn things around, saying: “This is my first Budget, and hopefully we will have a few more before the next election.
“Is this the summit of my ambition on growth? Absolutely not, I want to go further and faster.”
And countering a major backlash on a £25billion NICs raid on businesses, Ms Reeves said she understood the concerns but was boxed in.
But Ms Reeves said she is not immune to the “criticism” and the “worries” about the controversial increase.
She insisted it was “the right choice to ask businesses, rather than working people” given the “circumstances” she faced.
Pressed on the fact it will be a “tax by the backdoor”, she replied: “You could do what the Tories did and introduce stealth taxes on working people. I could have increased fuel duty.”
But critics say the hike on employers’ National Insurance contributions will be passed onto workers, with wages hit and possible layoffs.
And after hiking taxes on fags, booze, vapes, holidays and fizzy drinks, she batted away claims that she is “the fun police”.
Instead she said: “We got the right balance today in supporting ordinary working families who pay the majority of their tax in income tax, National Insurance and VAT. We did not pick the pockets, unlike the Tories, of working people.”
She added: “We had a choice today. We could have just gone for the taxes that working people pay. We could have frozen the thresholds for income tax and National Insurance. That would have dragged more people into paying tax. Would have dragged more pensioners into paying tax. That was not a choice that I wanted to make.”
The “trick and treat” Halloween package included:
- A freeze to fuel duty for a 15th consecutive year in a win for The Sun’s Keep It Down campaign
- A penny off a pint by cutting draught beer duty, but raising booze taxes on other drinks
- A gloomy forecast of sluggish growth in a blow to Labour’s flagship mission
- A stamp duty rise for second-home buyers of two percentage points
- A pay rise for millions as the minimum wage was increased by £1,400 a year
- A hike to a packet of cigarettes as smoking duties were raised
- A new tax on vapes ahead of the looming ban on disposable e-cigs
- Higher taxes on air passenger duty for private jets that hits the wealthy
- A benefits crackdown with Ms Reeves telling jobless Brits to “get back to work”
- An increase to the state pension of £473 next year through the triple lock
- An inheritance tax raid through freezing the rates people pay
- An increase to the Carer’s Allowance to give cash to 60,000 more carers
On fuel duty, the Chancellor praised The Sun’s Keep It Down campaign, which has pressured ministers to freeze rates since 2011.
Ms Reeves used today’s Budget to stop petrol and diesel prices rising with inflation.
And in a huge boost for cash-strapped Brits, she also confirmed the temporary 5p cut will remain in place.
She said: “You’ve been running a campaign for a long time to freeze the fuel duty, and that’s a cost of £3 billion.
“But it was the right decision, given the cost of living crisis is still affecting families, to freeze fuel duty for a further year. So there will be no higher taxes at the petrol pumps next year.”
