The Treasury Minister Bim Afolami has accused Labour of ‘wanting to hide’ planned tax rises.
Speaking on GB News Bim Afolami said: “Frankly, the Labour Party, if they had been honest with people in the debate yesterday, if Keir Starmer had been honest with people, or indeed, if they were honest with people before or after the debate, they wouldn't be in the trouble that they're in.
“It's because they want to hide the fact that they are planning over £2000 of tax rises for working families. And that is wrong.
“The shadow Chancellor is not being straight. She has had every opportunity over the last four years or so to set out her plans for the tax rises that they're planning for the British people that we have clearly documented is going to be just over £2000 per working family.
“If Keir Starmer has another number, he should come out and present it, because there are 27 costings there that are done mostly independently by Treasury, civil servants, also Labour Party figures and other government departments.
“The key reason why they spent the whole of today trying to obfuscate is because they know that Keir Starmer has been rumbled. And that fact is why they're panicking, because Rishi Sunak in the debate yesterday, gave Keir Starmer every opportunity to explain where his tax rise is going to land, how much extra borrowing he wanted to do in order to fund his promises, and he refused to do
so.
“The sheer number of things that those three comparatively small taxes are supposed to pay for is just so many you can even list them on this programme. The key thing is this: Labour has been rumbled. They are planning tax rises of more than £2000 for working people, and in an election campaign, they have to be honest with people about how that is going to impact their finances.
“I have no idea where on earth they came up with that number [of £70 billion]. I suspect they came up with it from the same place that they're saying that we're not being straight about their £2000 working families tax rise.
“Everybody knows the truth, right? Everybody knows, which is Starmer has been rumbled. They have been planning this tax rise on working families to fund their priorities. Not the priorities of the British people, to fund the Labour Party's priorities.
“And Rishi Sunak in the debate last night showed the country that that was their plan.
“Because of covid, this country had to spend over £450 billion pounds protecting the people. The government had to spend over £450 billion. Because of Putin's illegal war in the Ukraine, the government had to spend over £90 billion supporting people paying their energy bills.
“The difference is yes, taxes did rise in order to help pay some of that back, because we all know that nothing comes for free in this world, but we have now committed to a path to bring taxes down and bring growth and economic growth.
“A Labour Party wants to do precisely the opposite: taxes up, growth down, and that is the wrong path for our country at this juncture.
“Our priority in the Treasury, I can tell you, has always been to cut taxes for working people. That's why we've taken a third off National Insurance, a third in the last two fiscal events. So that is our priority. We've been very clear about that.
“But it's also true to say that people who are retired need security and dignity in their retirement. That's why the triple lot, we increased it by almost 9% in April and we're making sure now the basic state pension will never be taxed.
“The Labour Party wants to tax the basic state pension for pensions in this country.
The only reason why we've had to make sure that the basic state pension shouldn't be taxed is because we've raised the state pension by enough that now it's coming up to that level.”
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