Labour could pledge tax cuts for millions at the 2024 election - and more cost-of-living help for Brits this year, the Shadow Chancellor has suggested.
Rachel Reeves told the Mirror workers should “keep more of their money” - funded by a possible hike on those who profit from stocks, shares and dividends.
And she vowed to “bring forward” ideas this October on top of Labour ’s current cost-of-living package - which pledges up to £600 for the poorest over and above Tory help.
But she stopped short of backing a higher salary boost for millions of nurses, teachers, troops and police - despite union outrage at real-terms pay cuts.
The Shadow Chancellor said it is “in the hands of workers” mulling strikes after many were offered pay rises around 4-5% this week.
Unions have called on Tory ministers to go further than pay review bodies - whose advice this week’s decision was based on - as inflation hits 9.4%.
But Ms Reeves said while “I’d like them to get a pay rise”, “unless you grow the economy, it is not possible to improve living standards and have the money to invest in public services.”
Keir Starmer ’s top ally demanded a snap election from the next Tory leader as she blasted “thin-skinned” Rishi Sunak and “fantasy tax cuts” from Liz Truss.
The Shadow Chancellor said “both of them are beatable” and “neither of them represent a break from the last 11 years” after long service under Boris Johnson.
She added: “If they think they are so good, and they think they can beat us then bring it on, call a general election - we’ll look forward to one in the autumn.”
Ms Reeves said “there's still questions to answer” on Rishi Sunak’s tax affairs after it emerged his wife was a non-dom and he previously held a US Green Card.
“I just can't believe we’ve got somebody who was Chancellor and now wants to be Prime Minister whose family aren’t paying full taxes in this country,” she said.
Asked what chess pieces she, Ms Truss and Mr Sunak would be, Britain’s former under-14 girls’ champion laughed: “That’s a ridiculous question!
“I’d be the Queen of the chessboard - and they’d be little pawns that me and Keir swallow up!”
We spoke to the Shadow Chancellor - who has vowed to insulate 19million homes in a decade - on a visit to Octopus Energy in Slough, Berkshire.
Inside a warehouse, she was shown round a model home that’s fully-functioning - except the toilets - and is used to test heat pumps, solar panels and batteries.
She will also join Keir Starmer on Monday for a speech on Labour’s plans to expand the economy outside London and the South East.
Labour has promised some targeted tax hikes - charging VAT on private school fees and closing a “loophole” on private equity.
But the Tory leadership election is consumed by arguments over tax cuts after the burden hit the highest in 70 years.
Asked if she’d offer tax cuts into the next election to take on the Tories, Ms Reeves replied: “I would like working people to keep more of their money…
“And we are the only major economy that’s increasing taxes on working people right in the middle of the cost of living crisis. Economically that is absolute madness.
“We've said if you need more money for public services than why aren’t we asking those with the broader shoulders, so people who earn incomes from stocks and shares and dividends.
“So I think I have started to hint the direction of travel. But we’d set out the detail of that in an election.”
She would not commit to reversing the Tories’ National Insurance hike from April, saying: “We’d have to see what position the public finances are in at the next election.”
But she said it was “hilarious” to see Liz Truss disowning it after she voted for it.
On the cost of living, Labour pledged to raise the Warm Home Discount from £150 to £400 and expand it to 9million households, and axe 5% VAT on energy bills.
But Ms Reeves said more help will be needed: “When we made our announcement, it was ahead of the April increase in energy prices.
“We didn't know at that stage what the price cap was likely to be in October.
“So of course we're working on what more might be needed for October and we'll bring forward more on that.”
After Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis said there could be “mass non-payment” of energy bills she said: “I can pay my bills. I’m not going to go on strike and not pay my bills.
“But I've got constituents [who] literally can’t afford to put food on the table for their families.”
Asked if she’d go further than pay review bodies and Tory ministers on public sector pay, Ms Reeves said: “The pay review bodies are independent.
“They’ve made that recommendation, and it’s now in the hands of workers to decide whether they are going to accept that or not.”
Asked if she, as a politician, would overrule the review bodies and give a pay rise above inflation she replied: “I’d like them to get a pay rise.
“But there are a number of things that need to be considered.
“The way to actually give people sustainable increases of pay is to grow the economy.
“If the economy had grown at the same rate that it did when Labour was in power, the average worker would be earning £11,000 more a year than they were.”
She said after a decade of austerity “I totally understand why public sector workers are angry” - “public services are on their knees, and workers are demoralised”.
But she added: “I’ve got to explain where that money is going to come from, which is why I'm so determined to get economic growth.
“Because if the economy is growing, bringing in those tax revenues, we'd have the money to do those things that a Labour government wants to do.”
Ms Reeves said she would “look at” whether to raise the standard allowance in Universal Credit as “I want people to be able to live lives of dignity.”
But while a Welsh pilot of Basic Income for care leavers is “really interesting”, she disowned the idea of a Universal Basic Income for all Brits rich or poor.
After her predecessor John McDonnell looked at the idea, she said: “I’m not keen on the idea of Universal Basic Income.
“There are some people at the moment who are really struggling. I’m not. I earn a decent wage. I do not need a Universal Basic Income.
“It would not be a good use of taxpayers’ money to give blanket payments to people regardless of whether they need help or not.
“My priority would be to help people who really need it.”
Rachel Reeves and her electric car...
Eco-conscious Rachel Reeves took the plunge and bought an electric car - but had to abandon it when it ran out of juice.
She and husband Nick Joicey, the DWP’s finance director general, pay £250 a month on finance for a Kia e-Niro they bought in October 2020.
But there “were moments I thought - why on earth have we done this?” the Leeds West MP, who has two young children, revealed.
“The hottest day I think of last year, I was driving from Leeds to London with the kids and my husband was staying in Leeds.
“And we went to the charging point two before you get to London on the M1 and it wasn't working.
“And then we went to the next one. And then the next one, none of them were working and it was incredibly stressful.
“In the end, I ended up basically just sort of having to leave the car somewhere to charge and then getting a taxi home with the kids.”
But the experience hasn’t put her off - and she added: “They have improved so much the charging facilities even in the last year.
“And I don't have those fears anymore. The chargers are much faster and there's loads more of them.”
Calls for new cost-of-living payments
Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak must rush in new cost-of-living payments days after taking office, an energy firm boss has warned.
Greg Jackson warned the next PM must act fast when they enter No10 on September 6 - about a week after the October 1 price cap is accounted.
The Octopus Energy chief executive praised the “big package of support” so far, with benefit claimants getting £650 and all households getting £400.
But he added: “Since then we know energy bills are going to be hundreds of pounds higher than we thought they were going to be.
“And it’s really important that an incoming Prime Minister has this at the top of their tray.
“Whether it be increasing the existing package or creating new forms of support, the government have got to look very seriously at how they’re going to help particularly those who need it most through the winter that’s coming.”
Mr Jackson said he is not seeing customers default now, but they are using less energy - sometimes because they are rationing.
He told the Mirror: “It’s like the pandemic was the earthquake and these are the aftershocks.
“And we all know that with a real earthquake, the aftershocks can be just as deadly as the earthquake.
“So we have to treat this scenario as seriously as we did the pandemic.”
