Labour’s Lucy Powell has adamantly refused to make a firm commitment on future tax rises.
When pressed by host Tom Harwood on GB News about making a tax commitment, the Leader of the House of Commons said: “I’m not going to write all future Budgets on your programme this morning”.
She explained that the drastic measures in the Budget were necessary to “fix some of the foundations in the public finances,” and address what she described as a “big black hole.”
Speaking to GB News, she said: “Well, it’s not a Budget that we want to repeat. It’s a Budget we had to do at the time, we had to raise taxes.
Labour’s Lucy Powell explained the drastic measures in the previous Budget
GB News
“Why did we have to do that? We had to do it first of all, to fix some of the foundations in the public finances. There was this big black hole that we had to plug.
“Otherwise we would have run into all sorts of problems. But just as importantly, perhaps more importantly, we wanted to get we know we needed to get more money into the front line of our public services, particularly into our health service.
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“That’s why we’ve seen the biggest settlement for the NHS in a generation to start to tackle these.
Tom repeated: “Pressing on the question no new taxes?
The minister dodged again: “It’s important to have a healthy economy.
“A healthy society absolutely is inextricably linked with a growing economy, an economy where everybody fairly shares. If you’re waiting for a hip replacement operation, you can’t work.”
Tom Harwood questioned again: “But to press you because we’re short for time, can you make a commitment on taxes? “
She responded: “I’m not going to write all future Budgets on your programme this morning, but we did have to raise significantly taxes this time in order to restore and to try and get our public services, our transport, our health, our skills.
“Everything is vital to a growing economy moving forward again. And that’s why we have to take the decisions we did okay.”
The defence of Labour’s tax policies comes after a £40billion tax-raising Budget unveiled by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in October.
Keir Starmer also refused to rule out future
PA
The Budget has faced significant pushback from multiple sectors, particularly farmers concerned about changes to inheritance tax relief.
Business groups have also voiced strong opposition to the combination of measures introduced.
Industry lobby groups warn that the minimum wage rise, coupled with increased employers’ national insurance contributions, could severely impact jobs.
Ministers have faced mounting pressure over these fiscal decisions since the October 30 Budget announcement.
