Increasing Nawould be a complete betrayal. And the Chancellor knows it'

RACHEL Reeves will "betray" the British people if she goes ahead with blistering tax hikes in her first Budget today, it was claimed.

- Sam Lister

The Chancellor is expected to unleash a brutal round of increases that will hit employers and savers.

Tory leader Rishi Sunak savaged Labour for its litany of "broken promises and deception" during the general election campaign. He said: "Rachel Reeves promised that her plans were fully funded and she promised that she wouldn't change the debt target because that would be 'fiddling the figures'.

"We already know that those promises are totally worthless because she is going to change her fiscal rules so she can go on a borrowing spree.

"If she was to compound that by breaking her promise to the British people not to raise taxes on working people by increasing national insurance, that would be a complete betrayal. And she knows it.

"She's called national insurance a 'jobs tax' which 'takes money out of people's pockets'. And worst of all, she said the problem with national insurance is that it is a tax purely on people who go to work and those who employ them'. Far from protecting working people, she would be raising literally the only major tax that specifically hits working people."

Ms Reeves and Sir Keir Starmer repeatedly promised there would be no increase in taxes for working people during the election campaign and ruled out rises to VAT, national insurance and income tax.