Keir Starmer speech live: No guarantee I won’t raise taxes again, says PM
Published October 28, 2024
Sir Keir Starmer said he could not rule out further tax increases at future Budgets despite the nation bracing for a series of big raids on Wednesday.
The Prime Minister said it was his intention to deal with the “tough stuff” this week but he could not give a “cast iron guarantee” that there would not be more pain to come in the years ahead.
Asked if the forthcoming Budget would be the first and last with big tax rises, the Prime Minister said: “We are fixing the foundations in this Budget. So that is the purpose of this Budget, to take the difficult decisions now.
“Nobody wants tax rises, least of all me, so we will do the hard work in this Budget to allow us then to rebuild the country.
“I can’t give you a cast iron guarantee that never again in any Budget will there be any adjustment to tax because we just don’t know what is round the corner.”
Sir Keir said that “it is our intention to take the tough decisions here and now” and the “tough stuff is coming in this Budget”.
“But I am going to resist the temptation to say that at no point ever will there ever be an adjustment to anything else in the future,” he said.
The Budget this week is widely expected to include raids on employers’ National Insurance contributions, inheritances and capital gains.
Government won’t commit to keeping single occupancy council tax discount
The Government has declined to say whether it will be keeping the single occupancy discount for council tax in this week’s Budget.
Responding to a question from the shadow communities secretary Kemi Badenoch, Communities Minister Jim McMahon instead said the “right decisions will be made in the interests of working people”.
He said: “I can see the shadow secretary of state making that point repeatedly, at this point we’re all waiting, of course for the statement and the Budget.
“But I can say that the right decisions will be made in the interests of working people. We recognise the cost-of-living crisis that is being faced across the country. And like all members of the house I’m sure she will be waiting with interest for Wednesday.”
Ms Badenoch had said: “At the last oral questions, the Secretary of State [Angela Rayner] assured me that she had no plans to increase council tax for anyone. However, when pressed by the member for Beverley and Holderness, she would not make the same guarantee that the single occupancy discount would be retained. Will ministers take the opportunity to do so now?”
The current scheme gives a 25 per cent council tax discount to people who live on their own.