The wealthiest will bear the brunt of tax rises in this month’s Budget, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves has told the New Statesman. “I think people will be in no doubt when we do the Budget – those with the broadest shoulders will be bearing the largest burden.”
Reeves’s comments came amid reports that she is considering raising capital gains tax to a maximum of 39 per cent, something she denies. Asked about the cuts to pensioners’ winter fuel payments, Reeves spoke of “an immediate crisis” over the national finances when she entered the Treasury in July. The Conservatives, she said, “called an election and ran away…They didn’t want to have a Budget in the autumn.”
Reeves came close to confirming a rise in employers’ national insurance – pledging only that she would “not increase taxes on working people” – and ruled out introducing a wealth tax. She also said that warnings by the Institute for Fiscal Studies that £25bn of tax rises would be needed to rebuild public services were a major underestimate because they had not taken into account the £22bn “black hole” left by the Conservatives.
The Chancellor dismissed warnings that the rich would leave the country if she reformed the non-dom tax system. “If you make Britain your home, you should pay your taxes here – and under this government, you will.”
Reeves also said that cutting hospital waiting lists would be a prime objective of her Budget, pledging that within the first year of the Labour government, people would get hospital treatment when they need it. Asked about taxes on pensions, she declined to rule them out.
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