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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Polly Toynbee

Don’t listen to the Tories – Labour is right to raise taxes

Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves at the International Investment Summit in London, 14 October 2024.
Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves at the International Investment Summit in London, 14 October 2024. Photograph: Jonathan Brady/Reuters

As the budget approaches, expect more balderdash and hogwash from Labour’s enemies and their foghorn media. Listen to them protest that raising employers’ national insurance would betray the manifesto, making Labour’s pre-election pledge not to put up taxes on working people a blatant lie. But was it?

Labour never said where new taxes would fall, only where they wouldn’t. The manifesto said: “Labour will not increase taxes on working people, which is why we will not increase national insurance, the basic, higher, or additional rates of income tax, or VAT.”

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