IT IS obvious to everyone that Labour have been planning tax rises all along. And when they failed to be honest with the public about this during the election, we called them out for it loud and clear.
In fact, I held a press conference during the campaign where I outlined the glaring gaps in Labour’s plans and the taxes they might raise to pay for their policies.
I stated then that, if they won, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves would falsely claim the public finances they inherited were much worse than they thought, and they would use this to justify imposing tax rises that they hadn’t been honest about with the British people.
Sound familiar?
One of these taxes that we called them out for considering was employer National Insurance contributions.
And what was the Labour Party response? That we were talking about things “Labour isn’t doing”.
Let’s be clear – raising employer NICs is a tax on business, and businesses themselves are already sounding the alarm, with the Institute of Directors saying just this week that such a measure would be like a “poll tax on business”.
But it is also a tax on jobs and a tax on workers.
As the Office For Budget Responsibility has set out, “additional payroll costs for employers are passed through into lower wages”.
The move will make it harder for businesses to reward staff and hire. It will stifle productivity and competitiveness, causing lower employment rates.
These lower employment rates lead to lower growth. There are no two ways about it — this will cause a bonfire of jobs across the country.
When paired with Angela Rayner’s employment laws announced last week, which will increase the regulatory burdens on businesses, I know I am not the only one left wondering how the Labour Party could look in the eyes of the firms they hosted this week at their investment summit and argue they are on their side.
There is, of course, a political argument to be had on whether taxes should rise to fund public services.
But instead of being honest and making this argument, Labour refused to be straight about their plans.
Much has been said in the past about David Cameron and George Osborne’s economic record.
But they set out clearly during the 2010 campaign the problems they had identified and how they were going to fix them.
In contrast, this Labour Government have simply not been truthful.
During the election, they pledged to provide a “secure retirement for pensioners”, but they then cut winter fuel payments for older people on as little as £13,000 a year.
Rachel Reeves promised not to “fiddle the figures”, but they now look set at the Budget to do exactly that.
They promised families that GB Energy would reduce their bills by £300. But now businesses, experts and even the unions say the plans will make our energy more expensive.
So it is clear that raising employer NICs would be just the latest in a long line of broken promises. Labour thought being in government would be easy.
They thought they could get away with anything. Their arrogance over our mistakes led to them thinking they did not need to develop any policy to run government better.
They were wrong.
Their false piety has been pierced so comprehensively by the Downing Street passes for donors and crony appointments to the civil service. Their hypocrisy has been laid bare for all to see.
Yet still, they bleat on about the Tories, like some broken spell they try to mutter over and over again, in an attempt to conjure up the old magic. But it’s not going to work.
Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves must now face up to their hollow promises
Laura Trott
At the Budget they will undoubtedly harp on about the now-discredited claims on their inheritance. But let’s lay out the facts.
The Labour Party inherited an economy that had inflation at two per cent and unemployment half what it was in 2010. And they inherited the fastest-growing economy in the G7.
Labour’s politically driven nonsense has to stop.
Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves must now face up to their hollow promises and deliberate subterfuge about taxes during the election, and they must begin to make an argument that stands on its own two feet.
Labour are so obsessed with playing political games that they find themselves going into the Budget simultaneously claiming that while Conservatives spent too much, their solution is to spend more.
It’s nonsense, and Sun on Sunday readers won’t be fooled.
Be in no doubt, the Budget on October 30 is the one they have always planned to deliver.
Labour can’t blame the Tories any more.
They are in charge, and they are making a mess of it. It’s nobody’s fault but their own.
