‘Rachel Reeves is too busy measuring up No 11’s curtains to explain £38bn black hole’
SHADOW chancellor Rachel Reeves was accused of “measuring up the curtains” at No11 as she gloated that a Labour victory is within grasp.
If her party wins in the July 4 General Election, Ms Reeves would become the first female chancellor.
Ms Reeves beamed as she was asked about a Labour victory, and said: “We’re not complacent, we’re fighting for every single vote.
“But for the first time since I’ve been an MP, I believe we’re in touching distance of doing this.”
But Tories said it suggested she is taking voters for granted.
Paying
Conservative party deputy chairman Angela Richardson said: “Rachel Reeves is too busy measuring up No11’s curtains to explain how she’d pay for Labour’s £38.5billion black hole. This is just the same old Labour Party who have no plan to cut taxes, leaving hard-working families paying the price for their unfunded spending commitments with a £2,094 tax hike.
“The choice at this election is clear – a clear and bold plan to cut taxes, and end the double tax on work, under Rishi Sunak or going back to square one with the same old Labour Party, who as soon as they run out of money will come after yours.”
Ms Reeves insisted a Labour government will not raise income tax or National Insurance, despite economists warning the only options are more borrowing, spending cuts or tax hikes. She insisted there is “not going to be a return to austerity”.
She added: “I don’t want to make any cuts to public spending, which is why we’ve announced the immediate injection of cash into public services. So that money for our NHS, the additional police – 13,000 additional police and community officers – and the 6,500 additional teachers in our schools, they are all fully costed and fully funded promises.”
Pressed by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg yesterday on taxes, she replied that she and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer want taxes on the nation’s workforce to be lower.
She added: “We opposed the increases to National Insurance when Rishi Sunak put those forward as chancellor.
“We would like taxes on working people to be lower but, unlike the Conservatives, who have already racked up £64billion of unfunded tax cuts in just three days of this campaign,
I will never play fast and loose with the public finances. I will never put forward unfunded proposals.”
The Institute for Fiscal Studies said 1% spending increases in some public services mean cuts elsewhere under either party unless money can be found another way.
Director Paul Johnson told Times Radio: “Labour is in exactly the same cleft stick and actually in a more difficult one given the pressures that they might face in government because they appear to have accepted those budget numbers.”
He added: “Across quite a lot of areas of taxation they say they are not going to increase it and, slightly to my surprise, Rachel Reeves has agreed with precisely the same fiscal target that [Chancellor] Jeremy Hunt has set out.”
Excluding
Ms Reeves also insisted Labour “will end fire-and-rehire” after a union criticised the party for excluding an outright ban in the final version of its workers’ rights package. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham had said the plans now had “more holes than Swiss cheese”. But Ms Reeves refused to say when Labour would increase defence spending to 2.5% of national income. Veterans Minister Johnny Mercer said: “Not only have Labour rowed back on this commitment – one of their flagship policies – they have dropped the 2030 timeline for this pledge.”