Rachel Reeves has once again blamed everyone but herself for whacking up taxes in yesterday’s Winter Budget. ‘Blame Brexit, blame the Tories, just don’t blame me guv…’.
Speaking to GB News while on the morning media round, Reeves said:
“Last year, I had to fill a black hole left to me by the previous Conservative government… But I don’t think anybody fully comprehended the full extent of it until I got into the Treasury and I was able to see the books. This year the OBR have decided to do a review of UK productivity over the last 14 years and they point to a number of things including the pandemic and Brexit and frankly the chaos of the last few years under the Tories. I did have to increase taxes yesterday but I’ve kept them to an absolute minimum on normal working people.”
She then insisted she hadn’t broken Labour’s manifesto promises – despite saying last year that freezing Income Tax thresholds would breach the manifesto. That was after Brexit, Tories and the pandemic too…
She went on to stress that “This was my Budget yesterday”, not a backbencher-inspired panic move, when grilled over her welfare splurge to stave off a Labour rebellion. Meanwhile she refused to rule out more tax rises to come yesterday, unlike after last year’s budget. ‘It could have been worse’…