Treasury chief secretary Darren Jones had a heated clash with BBC Newsnight‘s Victoria Derbyshire over Labour’s tax hikes in the Budget on Wednesday, 31 October.
The MP for Bristol North West defended Rachel Reeves’ decision to hike employer national insurance by 1.2 percentage points from April next year.
Critics warned changing the UK’s second-biggest tax will have a knock-on impact on hiring, wages and staff benefits.
When asked to be “honest” about how the trade-off of the rise will be “fewer people in work,” Mr Jones told Ms Derbyshire: “I will not take any suggestion that I’m being dishonest in my answers.”
