Reeves has found her next tax target: former workers

Labour has got itself into a cleft stick.

- CHRIS BLACKHURST

Having come to power on a pledge of not raising taxes on “working people”, in response to the opposition charge that it cares more about those who don’t work, that raising money from the employed goes to help those who choose to be unemployed, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are stuck.

They are faced with a deficit of £50bn, give or take, for which they can no longer blame the Tories - that legacy was half. It's down to their failure to drive the economy, to achieve as they insist, “faster and further” growth. It's just not happening, and, meanwhile, they have that hole to fill.

They can't borrow extra because another reason that the chasm is so large is due to higher-than-expected borrowing costs. They dare not cut services because that would alienate their bedrock, and “austerity” is what Tories do, not them.