The Prime Minister was left red-faced when he was challenged over his election promise not to raise taxes.
Sky News reporter Beth Rigby left no holds barred as she tore into Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer live on air. The broadcaster wasted no time in dissecting the explosive Autumn Budget and its impact on millions of Brits across the UK. The Labour leader was asked why he had told voters during last year’s election campaign that he wouldn’t raise taxes to abolish the two-child benefit cap.
But in yesterday’s Budget, Rachel Reeves hiked up taxes by £26billion in order to fund the £4.6billion move, which will now allow families with three children or more to receive unlimited child benefit. In the car-crash interview, he “accepted the challenge that we’ve asked everybody to contribute” but insisted that it was worth taxing Britons more in order to lift children out of poverty.
Beth Ridgby grilled Keir Starmer in a brutal car crash interview (Image: Sky News)
Sky’s political editor launched into a brutal take-down of the PM, telling him: “You told working people you wouldn’t raise their taxes when you were fighting the election. You said it repeatedly when you were Prime Minister. You’ve broken their word, you’ve broken their trust. Will you apologise to them for misleading them?”
Sir Keir insisted that he had been forced to hike taxes due to the Office for Budget Responsibility downgrading productivity forecasts, which he argued was a result of the previous government’s policies.
The OBR cut productivity projections by 0.3 points yesterday, losing Rachel Reeves billions in estimated tax revenues. Ms Rigby also challenged Sir Keir over the abolition of the two-child benefit cap, pointing out he told voters during the election that he wouldn’t be able to pay for lifting the child benefit cap.
She fumed: “You said, ‘It’s a difficult thing, I want to put it in my manifesto, we can’t. I’m being honest with the public, we can’t afford it because I don’t want to put people’s taxes up’. You’ve done exactly the opposite; you’ve lost the confidence of voters.”
The Labour leader struggled to defend his decisions regarding the Autumn Budget (Image: Sky News)
Becoming noticeably heated, Starmer hit back with: “I absolutely do believe you’ve got to lift children out of poverty. We’ve had a two-child cap in place for the best part of 10 years. That has a massive impact on their health… those children will not have the opportunity to go as far as their talents will allow. I’m not going to apologise for lifting half a million children out of poverty!”
He insisted the decision hadn’t come out of party politics and pressure from his backbenchers, but instead claimed that he had “repeatedly to you and everyone else said I want a Labour government to drive down child poverty”. He added: “This is not a decision of the last few weeks or months. I have said that from the get-go. It’s a moral mission, it’s a personal mission.”
It didn’t take long for the heated interview to go viral, with one user branding it a “car crash” interview. They wrote: “This is a devastating interview for Keir Starmer. He’s visibly rattled, thin-skinned, and clearly has a temper. His lies are falling apart.
“This man is utterly unfit to be Prime Minister. Absolute car crash.” Another agreed: “Every media interview should be like this now. They must demand he resigns.” A third added: “Bet Riby has him on her skewer, twisting and turning trying to break free – Beth’s gone up in my estimation, she won’t let go – brilliant!”
