Reeves must restore voters' faith in centrist politicians, says Case

Voters will look elsewhere if Rachel Reeves does not use next week's pivotal budget to show that "centre-ground" politicians can fix the UK's entrenched economic problems, the former head of the civil service Simon Case has said.

- Peter Walker Pippa Crerar Kiran Stacey

Case told the Guardian that at the time of last year's general election, when he was still the cabinet secretary, he believed Labour would be forced to break their manifesto promise on not raising taxes because of the state of the public finances.

The build up to Rachel Reeves's set-piece fiscal speech has been dramatic, with the chancellor briefing heavily that she would be forced to breach the Labour manifesto and raise income tax before the Treasury suddenly rowed back on the idea.

Instead, she is expected to seek more revenue through a suite of changes, including a possible rise in duties paid by the gambling industry and a freeze on income tax thresholds, a de facto increase that would however allow Reeves to argue that it does not breach the manifesto.

Before the election, a number of fiscal thinktanks said Labour's manifesto pledge to not increase income tax, national insurance or VAT was unrealistic. Case said that while he was not allowed to give advice to Labour during pre-budget access talks, he believed the same.