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I was wrong when I said tax rises wouldn't be needed, Reeves admits
The Guardian
|November 04, 2024
Rachel Reeves has admitted that she was wrong to say before the election that no big tax rises would be needed, but promised that there was "no need to increase taxes further" after last week's budget raised £40bn.
She had not known the size of the "huge black hole in public finances" left by the Conservatives, which the government says amounted to £22bn. "I was wrong on June 11, I didn't know everything," she said.
The chancellor added that there was no requirement to come back with another big tax-raising budget, after increasing employer national insurance contributions, raising capital gains on most assets, making inheritance tax changes, and charging VAT on private school fees.
She told Sky's Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: "I'm not going to be able to write five years' worth of budgets on this show today, but... there's no need to come back with another budget like this. We'll never need to do that again."
This story is from the November 04, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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