Labour’s Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury has claimed that Labour “won’t increase taxes” after GB News host Ellie Costello asked ‘can we trust you?’
On today’s Budget, Darren Jones told GB News: “I think the Chancellor is saying that this is yet another plan for growth. Yesterday, I looked back over the last 14 years of the Conservatives in government and they’ve had 21 plans for growth over the years.
“This is the 22nd, and where are we? We’re in the middle of Rishi’s recession. I’m not quite sure if you can take the Chancellor’s word for it that on the 22nd attempt, he’s going to get growth back into the economy.
“That’s really important because if you step back from all the individual measures, the fact that this Budget alone is not going to go anywhere near repairing the damage of the last 14 years is the big political question here in Westminster today.”
In a discussion during Breakfast with Eamonn Holmes and Ellie Costello, he continued: “People at home will be experiencing that and will know that because when they look at their pay slip when they look at their taxes, when they look at their mortgage or rent, when they look at how much money they’ve got at the end of the month, they know that after 14 years, they are not better off under the Conservatives.”
On the possibility of the Chancellor changing the non-dom tax status, he said: “If the Chancellor does announce the non-dom status change in the Budget later today, it will be a humiliation for the Conservatives who have until yesterday said that it was not an effective plan for the country even though we in the Labour Party had been saying it was the right thing to do for many, many years.”
Asked if Labour can be trusted with the economy, he said: “People can trust us with the economy. If you look at polling from across the country, the Labour Party leads the Conservatives now and Rachel Reeves leads Jeremy Hunt as being the most trusted on the economy.
“This is the first time I think ever that the Labour Party is going from opposition hopefully into government at an election ahead of the Conservatives on being trusted on the economy. And that’s because of the hard work that Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves and I have done to set that out for the country.”
On fears of large tax rises under a Labour government, he said: “It’s not the Labour Party’s position to increase taxes. We said for example, that we’re not going to be increasing taxes on working people.
“We’ve got very clear fiscal rules from our Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves, that we will not be borrowing for day to day spending and that we will get debt falling…
“My job as shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury means that it is absolutely my responsibility to ensure that all of our policies from now going into the manifesto and the election campaign are fully costed and fully funded.”
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