The Health and Social Care Minister, Stephen Kinnock, refused to give a direct answer about tax rises
Labour minister Stephen Kinnock was skewered by viewers (Image: ITV)
Good Morning Britain returned to ITV with presenters Richard Madeley and Kate Garraway, who were joined by Labour’s Health and Social Care Minister Stephen Kinnock. This came just hours after Chancellor Rachel Reeves admitted that tax rises and spending cuts would be considered in the upcoming November budget to address the country’s economic challenges.
Kate addressed the potential tax hikes and asked the minister: “Is this what so many said was going to happen and what everybody feared was going to happen, that actually taxes are going up despite the promises and there will be cuts in spending?” However, Kinnock refused to provide a direct answer as he responded: “You’ll forgive me, I’m not going to speculate on the content of the Budget, that’s a matter for the Chancellor.” Not accepting his reply, the presenter interrupted: “Of course it is, and I don’t want to interrupt you, but could you speculate on what you read into what she said?”
Rachel Reeves hinted at tax hikes for the country’s economic challenges (Image: Getty)
Kinnock said: “What I do know is that we are facing a very challenging fiscal position after 14 years of Conservative neglect and incompetence, and economic stagnation.
“We’re currently paying, just in debt interest alone, over £100 billion a year. That’s money that’s just going to overseas investors, American hedge funds on the financial markets.”
He added: “That’s more than the entire education budget in the country, so we’ve got to deal with the fact that we’ve got a serious position fiscally and in terms of debt.”
However, viewers were unimpressed with the politician’s response as one questioned: “Why does this government willingly give millions abroad then tax us more to pay for it????”
Another claimed: “There’s plenty of money that the government has taken from the tax payer. They don’t need to take more. They need to stop wasting what they have.”
“Have many years when the taxpayers paid enough to run the country, and you talk about borrowing. This country has vaults of Gold and Money as well as Assets. Government are thieves,” fumed a third.
“It’s all lies this country needing to borrow. These so-called hedge funds, etc, are set up by the Government. It’s just a way to rob the Native taxpayer of the country of Billions of pounds a year,” said another viewer.
When Reeves was asked by Sky News, how she would deal with the country’s economic challenges, the Chancellor responded: “Of course, we’re looking at tax and spending as well, but the numbers will always add up with me as chancellor because we saw just three years ago what happens when a government, where the Conservatives, lost control of the public finances: inflation and interest rates went through the roof.”
