Rachel Reeves admits ‘I was wrong’ to say taxes wouldn’t rise during election campaign after fury over £40bn Budget hike
RACHEL Reeves has shockingly admitted she was wrong to say before the election taxes would not have to rise.
But the Chancellor vowed there will be no more hikes after her £40bn Budget shock.
She insisted her focus will now shift on reforming public services and boosting economic growth.
Her comments come amid a growing backlash over her promise in June that the only increases needed were set out in the Labour manifesto.
Instead, Ms Reeves introduced the highest tax hike in history on Wednesday, imposing a staggering £40 billion raid on the nation.
Appearing on Sky News this morning, Ms Reeves said: “I was wrong on June 11, I didn’t know everything.”
She blamed a “massive black hole” in the public finances that emerged after she took office, arguing that the situation was far worse than anyone had anticipated during the election campaign.
The Chancellor promised taxpayers will not face further burdens in the future as Labour “wiped the slate clean” after the Tories’ “mismanagement”.
She said: “We’ve now set the spending envelope for the remainder of this parliament, we don’t need to increase taxes further.
“We need to do two things now: we need to reform our public services to make sure they work better and we need to grow our economy.”
Pressed on whether she will return with more tax rises, the Chancellor replied: “I’m not going to be able to write five years worth of budgets on this show today, but there’s no need to come back with another Budget like this, we’ll never need to do that again.”
Economists at the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Resolution Foundation claim current spending plans mean the Chancellor will have to find £9 billion more after next year to avoid a return to austerity.
But Ms Reeves is counting on economic growth to help avoid further tax rises.
She is expected to set out a series of reforms to pensions, welfare and industrial strategy in the coming weeks.