More than half of voters think Sir Keir Starmer’s party will saddle them with punishing hikes.

And fewer than one third believe Labour will stick to its pre-election pledge of not raising taxes on working people.

The damning findings come just a week before Rachel Reeves is widely expected to take a sledgehammer to people’s finances by unleashing £40 billion in tax rises in the Budget.

Fears are mounting the Chancellor could pull the trigger on a number of tax rises – including raising Inheritance Tax, stamp duty and taxes on pensions – on October 30.

Ministers say Labour’s manifesto pledge to help “working people” will be respected but the survey by Survation shows that the public don’t trust Sir Keir’s party on taxes.

The poll of more than 4,000 voters shows that 55% of people regard Labour as the party of high tax compared to 40% who think the Conservative’s are.

The same survey in February showed 43% of the public thought Labour were a high tax party compared to 49% for the Tories.

It also shows that cost-of-living remains the number one concern for voters and that people believe they pay too much tax.

The respected IFS think-tank has warned that Ms Reeves needs to find around £25 billion of increases if she wants to avoid austerity and meet Labour’s manifesto commitments.

Treasury sources have suggested the “black hole” in the books could require £40 billion of tax rises and spending cuts.

Increasing Employer National Insurance increasingly looks like being the big ticket revenue-raiser for Ms Reeves.

Increasing the headline rate by 1p brings in around £8.6billion a year, according to the Treasury.

It’s also looking increasingly likely that capital gains tax will be caught up in the crosshairs of Labour’s tax raises.

Ms Reeves may target Inheritance Tax, increasing the rate of the hated “death tax” to raise revenue.

The government has so far failed to rule out potential changes to the 25% tax-free lump sum on pensions, and is reportedly considering cutting the tax-free amount to £100,000, down from £268,275.

This follows recommendations from think tanks to reduce the limit, which could raise around £2 billion.

Motorists could be handed higher costs should Labour choose to target fuel duty in its Budget.

Fuel duty has been frozen since 2011-12, and the Conservative government cut the rate by a further 5p in 2022 as prices rocketed following the beginning of the war in Ukraine.

Gareth Davies, Shadow Exchequer Secretary, warned: “If the rumours are to be believed, this country might be facing the most damaging Budget in recent memory – with measures that will hurt growth, competitiveness, investment and the pockets of the British public.”

Survation’s survey comes as almost 300 distillers and hospitality firms joined together as the UK Spirits Alliance to call on the Chancellor to reverse the previous Government’s huge duty increase.

In 2023 Jeremy Hunt hiked duty on spirits by 10.1%, the biggest increase in half a century.

It led to the price of a drink such as a gin-and-tonic spiralling – dubbed “ginflation”.

Economic analysis reveals the Treasury is £298 million worse off because . This is according to the Government’s own alcohol duty receipts (August 2023 to July 2024) compared to the same period last year.

Damian Lyons Lowe, Chief Executive from Survation, said: “These findings clearly highlight a significant shift in public perception, with Labour now seen by the majority as the high-tax party—a 12 percentage point rise since our February survey.

“This increase coincides with Labour’s narrative of an ‘economic black hole’ and the need for ‘difficult choices,’ and the public mood is downbeat.

“Voters are not only concerned about rising costs but are also calling for a sense of fairness in how the tax burden is shared. Voters do not trust Labour on taxation, believe taxes will be higher under the new government, and think the party will break its pledge to not raise taxes on working people. The government needs to give people/consumers some good news”.

Liam Hirt, Co-founder of Bristol-based Circumstance Distillery said: “If the Chancellor is serious about ‘securonomics’ and getting the economy growing again, she must learn from the previous Government’s mistakes, take care to avoid unintended consequences and back innovative, high-potential sectors such as spirits.”

Stephen Russell, Co-founder of Kent-based Copper Rivet Distillery said: “It’s time to get behind innovative British distilleries. The spirits industry creates jobs, drives tourism, is a great British export and contributes billions to the UK economy. It is vital that the Government shows their support for an industry that was once thriving but is currently stilted by the 10.1% duty rise.”