Labour flip-flops over Rishi Sunak’s income tax freeze

Labour flip-flopped over Rishi Sunak‘s income tax freeze today as Lisa Nandy insisted the party’s MPs will vote against the plan.

The Chancellor announced that thresholds are being put on hold until 2026 in his Budget package last week.

The decision will drag two million people deeper into higher bands and help raise £30billion a year in extra revenue by 2025, as the government scrambles to fill the huge black hole in the public finances after Covid.

Shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds indicated on Wednesday evening that Labour supported the freeze ‘in principle’.

However, the stance was condemned by left-wingers who pointed out that many of those affected will be on low incomes, while the rich will barely notice the difference.  

Mr Sunak has argued that the policy is a ‘progressive’ way to bring in more money with national debt spiralling towards £2.8trillion.

Labour flip-flopped over Rishi Sunak’s income tax freeze today as Lisa Nandy insisted the party’s MPs will vote against the plan

The Chancellor announced that thresholds are being put on hold from next month until 2026 in his Budget package last week

Sir Keir Starmer (pictured on a visit last week) has been coming under increasing pressure over his failure to make any dent in the Tory poll lead, which has stretched out amid the fast vaccine rollout

But the respected IFS think-tank says it is one of the least progressive methods available. 

In an interview on Sky News’ Ridge on Sunday, shadow foreign secretary Ms Nandy said: ‘We are going to vote against it this week. 

‘We feel that now is absolutely the wrong time to be targeting low-and-middle-income earning families for tax hikes and squeezing their incomes… 

‘We were really concerned when those plans were announced, that what the government was effectively saying was low-and-middle-income earning families would be targeted to start paying into the system a full year before many of those major corporations, because the corporations tax rise doesn’t come in until a year later… 

‘We think this is the wrong thing to do so we’ll be voting against it this week.’ 

Votes on the Budget are taking place this week, but the government has an 80-strong majority and there is little sign of a Tory rebellion.

Sir Keir Starmer has been coming under increasing pressure over his failure to make any dent in the Tory poll lead, which has stretched out amid the fast vaccine rollout.  

 

Research by YouGov last week found Conservative support had surged four points to 45 per cent over the past week – while Keir Starmer’s party tumbled to 32 per cent