Kemi Badenoch’s blast comes after Rachel Reeves said she was ‘sick of people mansplaining how to be Chancellor to me’.
Kemi Badenoch says Rachel Reeves risks being a coward (Image: PA)
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch says Chancellor Rachel Reeves should have the “balls” to admit she has broken the Labour manifesto if she freezes income tax thresholds in Wednesday’s Budget. Mrs Badenoch warned the Chancellor will be a “coward” if she does not acknowledge this is a breach of the manifesto which promised not to increase taxes on working people.
The Conservative leader’s blast comes in the wake of Ms Reeves complaining she is “sick of people mansplaining how to be Chancellor to me”.
Mrs Badenoch said: “Rachel Reeves has claimed that critics of her chaotic economic mismanagement are ‘mansplaining’. Well let me say this: if she freezes income tax thresholds she will, according to her own words in her own Budget speech last year, be breaching the Labour manifesto. And she should have the balls to stand up on Wednesday and admit that to British taxpayers. Anything less will confirm that she is a coward who can’t take responsibility for her actions.”
There are grave concerns that pensioners and low incomes workers will be dragged into paying income tax if the freeze in the point at which it must be paid continues past 2028.
Ms Reeves claimed in last year’s Budget that “extending the threshold would hurt working people” and “take more money out of their payslips”. But there is strong speculation it will be extended for another two years to fill a hole in the public finances.
Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride fears the thresholds for stamp duty and inheritance tax will also be frozen, “sending the tax burden on homeowners soaring”.
He claims keeping stamp duty thresholds frozen will rake in a £19.3billion in 2029-30. He says a similar move on inheritance tax would push receipts to £14.3billion by 2029-30.
He said: “Labour’s £33billion stealth tax raid shows exactly whose side Rachel Reeves is on. Reeves’s complete failure to control welfare spending is costing all of us. Nothing is safe under Labour – not your job, home, pension or savings.
“Rachel Reeves is too weak to grip spending, so she taxes hardworking taxpayers instead. We must reward work not welfare.”
Can Kemi Badenoch and Sir Mel Stride take the Tories back to the Government benches? (Image: House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA Wire)
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “Kemi Badenoch and Mel Stride can shout from the sidelines all they like – the public knows the Conservative Party has zero credibility when it comes to our public finances. Their reckless economy-crashing approach to our economy sent mortgages spiralling and working people are still paying a very heavy price.
“Instead of apologising for the state they left Britain in, they’ve come forward with a new austerity plan that would see money drained out of schools, hospitals, and our police. Labour’s Budget will take the fair choices to deliver strong foundations for our economy and and cut NHS waiting lists, cut national debt and cut the cost of living.”
