Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has told the BBC it is not his “plan” to have any more tax rises before the next election – but says he could not rule them out in the event of “unforeseen” circumstances.
The prime minister was speaking to BBC Breakfast shortly after setting out six pledges, including a promise to put more money in the pockets of working people.
Sir Keir said he knew some decisions were “not always popular” but voters could judge him at the next general election on whether they feel their living standards have improved.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch dismissed the PM’s new pledges as a sign that Labour had not been “ready for government”.
In addition to improving living standards, the other “milestones” announced by Sir Keir in a speech on Thursday included building 1.5 million new homes in England, ending hospital backlogs and increasing the proportion of children who are “ready to learn” when starting school to 75%.
Labour has dismissed suggestions the new pledges are a reset following their first few months in government.
The chancellor announced a near-£70bn increase in public spending in her first Budget in October, of which more than half will come from higher taxes, with businesses set to bear the brunt of the rises.
Employers will see an increase in National Insurance contributions on their workers’ earnings which will raise up to £25bn a year for the government. And there will also be an increase to capital gains tax on share sales and a freeze on inheritance tax thresholds.
Leading business groups said the Budget was a “tough” one for firms, and then-Conservative Party leader Rishi Sunak said: “You name it, they’ll tax it”.
Despite the tax rises, the Office for Budget Responsibility said the package of economic measures would ultimately “leave GDP largely unchanged in five years”.
At the time, the chancellor told the BBC that this is “not the sort of Budget we would want to repeat”.
On the possibility of further tax rises, Sir Keir Starmer said: “I don’t want to suggest we’re going to keep coming back for more because that isn’t the plan.”
“What I can’t do, is say to you there are no circumstances unforeseen in the future that wouldn’t lead to any change at all.
“If you look at Covid and Ukraine, everyone knows there are things we can’t see now but I can tell you our intention was to do the tough stuff in that Budget, not keep coming back.”
Sir Keir’s interview with the BBC follows a major speech on Thursday, in which he set out six pledges which he says will allow voters to hold his government to account.
The targets cover the economy, housebuilding, the NHS, policing, pre-school education and green energy.
Labour plans on meeting them by 2029, when the next election is likely to be held.
BBC political editor Chris Mason said Sir Keir’s speech felt like an election manifesto launch.
He said it appears like the government is trying to take control of the agenda, after a bumpy start to life in power.
Asked why he thought his popularity had fallen since the election, Sir Keir said he had chosen to take the “tough decisions” early on in his premiership.
He said he knew the decisions would not always be popular but were needed “to turn the country around”.
“I just don’t want to do what politicians have done in the past which is to get in the warm bath of empty promises.
“I’m prepared to roll up my sleeves and tell people its tough – we’re going to do it but you’re going to be better off.”
“You’ll have a better health service, you’ll have better houses, you’ll have better energy bills at the end of this and I’ll be judged, quite rightly, at the end of the parliamentary term whether I’ve delivered on what I said I would deliver on.”
In answer to a question about when people would feel better off, Sir Keir said that would be measured at the end of the Parliament but that he wanted people to “feel better off straight away”.
He added that a pay rise for those on the lowest wages meant three million people were already better off as a result of the government’s actions.
Writing in The Times, the prime minister expanded on his pledge to build 1.5 million new homes in England, saying he was ready to “launch a golden era of building”.
“Britain is in the grip of the worst housing crisis in living memory,” Sir Keir writes, blaming this on a planning system he says is “urgently in need of decisive reforms”.
“For too long, the country has been held to ransom by the blockers and bureaucrats who have stopped the country building.”
But one local council leader told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the new housing goals were “unrealistic” and they are going to “really struggle to deliver”.
Cllr Yvonne Gagen, the Labour leader of West Lancashire Borough Council, said since the prime minister’s announcement, her area’s housing targets have more than tripled, adding that they “don’t have the land” to build them on.
Following Sir Keir’s speech on Thursday, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said: “The prime minister’s emergency reset confirms that Labour had 14 years in opposition and still weren’t ready for government.
“Nothing concrete on immigration – because Labour have no plan to control numbers.”
The prime minister has said he wants to reduce migration levels but his six pledges did not include a measurable target.
Sir Keir told the BBC Breakfast that trying to put a “hard cap” on migration numbers hadn’t worked in the past.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said his party would “hold this government’s feet to the fire on keeping its promises, most of all on fixing the NHS and care.
“It was worrying to see no clear plan in these targets to make sure people can see a GP when they need to.”
