Sky News’ Trevor Phillips called out the government on Sunday morning by saying Labour’s manifesto had “terms and conditions” attached.
With less than two weeks to go until chancellor Rachel Reeves unveils her first Budget, the public are nervously waiting to see how she tries to raise £40bn in spending cuts and tax rises while also trying to avoid austerity measures.
Labour also promised before the election not to increase taxes for “working people”, particularly when it comes to VAT, income tax and National Insurance contributions.
In a clash with health secretary Wes Streeting, presenter Phillips asked how the “working people” label applies to the self-employed.
“Of course self-employed people are working people,” the cabinet minister replied, adding that when he thinks about the term, he means those who are on “low to middle incomes”.
Phillips asked: “Why is it then that in the legislation you’re going to introduce tomorrow on workers’ rights, you don’t redefine to include the self-employed?”
Streeting said that they have a “different working arrangement”.
The presenter asked: “So just in the same way you told us there would be no rise in National Insurance, but suddenly there’s rises in National Insurance for employers, it’s just possible there might be rises in taxes for the self-employed, because they’re not workers?”
The minister replied: “We will keep our manifesto promises, despite the pressures, we will not increase income tax, National Insurance or VAT on working people – that was the commitment we made before the general election.”
Phillips cut in: “Every expert says you’re breaking the pledge.”
Paul Johnson of the think tank Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) already said last week that putting up NI in any way would be a manifesto breach.
The health secretary claimed Labour had been criticised for not being radical enough in their manifesto in the run up to the general election, and that’s because they knew it had to be feasible to deliver on it.
As they spoke over each other, the presenter hit out: “You know what I want to do now? I want to say, I take that answer but terms and conditions apply.”
“What do you mean? Absolutely not,” Streeting said, saying Labour are going to deliver on every pledge they made in their manifesto.