Sir Keir Starmer said he could not rule out further tax increases at future Budgets despite the nation bracing for a series of big raids on Wednesday.
The Prime Minister said it was his intention to deal with the “tough stuff” this week but he could not give a “cast iron guarantee” that there would not be more pain to come in the years ahead.
Asked if the forthcoming Budget would be the first and last with big tax rises, the Prime Minister said: “We are fixing the foundations in this Budget. So that is the purpose of this Budget, to take the difficult decisions now.
“Nobody wants tax rises, least of all me, so we will do the hard work in this Budget to allow us then to rebuild the country.
“I can’t give you a cast iron guarantee that never again in any Budget will there be any adjustment to tax because we just don’t know what is round the corner.”
Sir Keir said that “it is our intention to take the tough decisions here and now” and the “tough stuff is coming in this Budget”.
“But I am going to resist the temptation to say that at no point ever will there ever be an adjustment to anything else in the future,” he said.
The Budget this week is widely expected to include raids on employers’ National Insurance contributions, inheritances and capital gains.
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Source: telegraph.co.uk