Darren Jones also declines to rule out wealth tax when questioned about government plans
Good morning. This is the last full week the Commons is sitting before the summer recess starts (on Tuesday next week) and, although there is a fair amount coming up (see below), there is no big story dominating the news agenda. The national newspapers are all splashing on different items – which is normally a sign that it was a slow news day yesterday.
The government wants to talk about its new £500m “better futures fund”.
Labour will not increase taxes on working people, which is why we will not increase National Insurance, the basic, higher, or additional rates of Income Tax, or VAT.
The thing I can tell you is that our manifesto commitment coming into this election was that we were not going to increase the headline rate of income tax or employee national insurance on working people in the pay slips that people get when they go to work or on VAT because we know that that disproportionately affects people on lower incomes because they spend more of their money on the day to day shop, essentially.
We made a commitment in our manifesto not to be putting up taxes on people on modest incomes, working people.
Modest income means different things to different people. But it’s not entirely relevant, because the thing that is relevant is our manifesto commitment not to increase national insurance or employee national or income tax in the payslips that people receive every month.
Treasury minister Darren Jones says Labour’s “working people” tax pledge refers to “anyone that gets a payslip, basically”.
Significantly broader than Transport Sec Heidi Alexander’s definition yesterday of “people on modest incomes”.
What a mess, and not for the first time.