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Rachel Reeves claimed her Budget was for strivers as she tried to draw a line under a furious row over Labour’s definition of working people.
The chancellor, who is expected to raise taxes on Wednesday, warned that she had had to make “tough decisions…Not everything is going to be easy”.
But she said her reforms, which Labour hope will kickstart economic growth, were for “hardworking families up and down the country who have been crying out for change.
“To these people I say, I’ve got your back…. I will deliver for you. It’s a Budget for the strivers,” she wrote in The Sun on Sunday.
Her comments risk a backlash for echoing George Osborne’s claims when he was chancellor that strivers would be better off under his budgets.
Money raised through the budget will in part be used for rebuilding crumbling hospitals and schools.
Ms Reeves is thought to be planning a £20 billion rise in employer National Insurance, which has been dubbed a “jobs tax”.
Labour had promised not to increase taxes on “working people”, including national insurance, in its manifesto.
And Keir Starmer triggered an outcry on Friday when he suggested that landlords and those with shares did not count as working people.
Downing Street was later forced to row back from the position, with the PM’s official spokesperson saying that people who hold a small amount of savings in stocks and shares still counted and that the PM meant someone who primarily received their income from assets.
He was also forced to deny that he has broken a manifesto pledge with the National Insurance hike.
On Sunday, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson insisted that working people will not see higer taxes on their payslip. But speaking on BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg show, she refused repeatedly to say whether a small business owner with an average net profit of around £13,000 counts as a “working person”.
When pressed on Labour’s definition of the term “working people”, she said: “You are inviting me to speculate about the nature of the question that you’re asking. What I’m saying is that when people look at their payslips, they will not see higher taxes.”
Sir Keir, when asked if he had misled the public in the Labour manifesto on Saturday, said: “No, we were very clear about the tax rises that we would necessarily have to make, whatever the circumstances, and you’ve listed them there, and I listed them, I don’t know how many times in the campaign.
“We were equally clear in the manifesto and in the campaign that we wouldn’t be increasing taxes on working people, and spelt out what we meant by that in terms of income tax, in terms of NICs [National Insurance contributions] and in terms of VAT, and we intend to keep the promises that we made in our manifesto.”
