Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves says Rishi Sunak is singing from Liz Truss’ “songbook” in making “unfunded commitments”, after his promise to raise the tax-free pension allowance.
Helia Ebrahimi: Shadow chancellor, today the Conservatives have made a new promise to pensioners. They say that it proves that Labour are going to treat the elderly neglectfully, that you are not backing this promise. Why are you not backing it?
Rachel Reeves: Today is just another desperate gimmick from the Conservative Party, that have taken taxes to a 70-year high. Indeed, when the Conservatives came into office in 2010, 4.9 million pensioners were paying income tax. Today it’s 8.5 million. So Conservatives [pensioners] are paying more taxes under the Conservatives. That is their record.
Helia Ebrahimi: So would you follow this policy if there was money to do so, or do you disagree with the policy?
Rachel Reeves: I want to bring taxes down for families and for pensioners as well. But unlike the Conservatives, I’m not willing to make spending commitments or tax commitments without saying where the money’s going to come from. And frankly, Rishi Sunak has learnt nothing from Liz Truss. He’s singing from her songbook in making yet more unfunded commitments. Already £64 billion worth of unfunded tax commitments from the Conservatives during this campaign, and an additional commitment yesterday. None of this is funded.
