Keir Starmer warns autumn Budget is going to be ‘painful’

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UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has warned that the autumn Budget is “going to be painful”, in his strongest hint yet that the Labour government will raise taxes in October.

In a speech in Downing Street on Tuesday morning, Starmer said he would have to make “big asks” of the public.

“We have no other choice, given the situation we’re in,” he said, referring to what Labour has characterised as a £22bn “black hole” left by the Conservatives in the public finances.

“Those with the widest shoulders should bear the heaviest burden,” he added.

Starmer is betting that public opinion will blame the former Conservative government for any tax rises and that such increases will not impede his administration’s push for higher growth.

Labelling growth as the priority for his Labour government, he warned that the inheritance from his predecessor Rishi Sunak’s government was “worse than we ever imagined”.

Labour has ruled out raising income tax, national insurance and VAT, which together account for the majority of government income.

“In relation to working people — income tax, national insurance, VAT — we will not increase tax,” Starmer said.

“I say again what I said before the election, we have to get away from the idea that the only levers are more tax and more spending,” he added.

He did not initially elaborate on which taxes could be raised during the autumn Budget.

Last month, Chancellor Rachel Reeves warned the UK to expect tax rises in October, telling The News Agents podcast: “I think that we will have to increase taxes in the Budget.”

Starmer also responded to claims of cronyism that have dogged his government over the past fortnight.

Referring to reporting about the appointment of donors to senior civil service positions, he said that “most of these allegations are coming from the very people who dragged our country down in the first place”.

“I’m enormously aware of how big a task [governing] is. That’s why we’re getting people into the best jobs in the first place,” he said, adding that he was determined to restore integrity to the government.

The prime minister said he still intended to establish a new ethics and integrity commission with its own independent chair, although he was unable to say when it would be launched.

Responding to a story over the weekend that Labour donor and peer Waheed Alli had been given a temporary pass to Downing Street, Starmer said that Alli was “doing some transition work for us: the work finished, he hasn’t got a pass”.

The prime minister said he still intended to establish a new ethics and integrity commission with its own independent chair, although he was unable to say when the commission would be launched.