Prime Minister Keir Starmer has given the British Public a further warning that tax raises are on the way. In a speech delivered from the Downing Street Garden, he said that the forthcoming budget would be ‘painful’, but reiterated his commitment not to raise National Insurance, VAT, and income tax. He claimed that those with the ‘broadest shoulders should bear the heavier burden.’ He stressed that Labour had inherited an economic and ‘societal black hole’ from the former Conservative government, as proven by the spate of riots and violence that broke out following the Southport attack. Conservative MP and leadership contender Robert Jenrick defended his party’s track record claiming that Starmer was ‘shamelessly attempting to rewrite history’ to lay the ‘groundwork for huge tax rises.’

Continuing to blame the former government for failing to be ‘honest’ with the public, Starmer said that the state of the public purse was ‘worse than we ever imagined’ and that things will ‘get worse before they get better.’ He said Chancellor Rachel Reeves's budget would make ‘big asks’ of the country. While standing by the election pledge not to raise taxes for working people, the expectation is that inheritance tax and capital gains tax are likely to rise. Reeves has been in the States looking at potential restructuring on pension investments and has already cut the winter fuel payments, a move that has attracted criticism from charities such as Age UK, as ‘reckless’ and ‘disastrous’ for pensioners. Further reform on tax relief on pensions could be on the cards, leaving concerns for the long term state of social care.

Speaking about the recent riots, former chief prosecutor Starmer said that he was not confident that the justice system could cope with the action that needs to be taken, claiming that every day there had been checks on the exact number of prison places available to ensure the system could work quickly. He said the rioters knew that the system was ‘broken’. ‘They saw the cracks in our society after 14 years of failure – and they exploited it.’ The BBC reported that said that there were less than 100 spaces available in men’s prisons over the bank holiday weekend. Even with the Government’s new policy of making prisoners legible for release who have served 40% of their sentence (down from 50%), some are arguing that more measures need to be taken to support the system.

Starmer also had to defend himself from accusations of cronyism. Since coming to power, the Conservatives have criticized decisions such as appointing a Labour donor to a treasury role and giving another donor, Lord Alli, a temporary pass to No 10. Starmer said he was focused on ‘moving at pace’ to make positive change and needed the ‘best people for the jobs’. He said was determined to restore honesty and integrity to government, instead of pedaling ‘the snake oil of populism’ like his predecessors.  ‘Tough action is needed to fix the foundations of the country.’

(Sources: bbc.co.uk)