Reeves insists she and Sir Keir decided on tax policy 'as a team'

CHANCELLOR Rachel Reeves insists that the Prime Minister shared responsibility for her Budget decisions.

- DAVID WILLIAMSON Chief Political Editor

Critics have warned they will result in pensioners and low-wage workers paying income tax for the first time.

But Ms Reeves yesterday told MPs that she and Keir Starmer worked “together as a team” ahead of the November 26 announcement and the pair talked through “all the options”.

The Chancellor was grilled on the decision not to raise income tax rates but instead freeze the point at which people must pay the levy for a further three years when she appeared before the Treasury Committee.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies claims the decision to freeze personal tax thresholds between 2028 and 2031 will result in around 700,000 more people owing income tax and a million more paying at higher rates.

Ms Reeves denied this was a breach of Labour’s manifesto as it “referred to rates of income tax and National Insurance and the rate of VAT”.

Frustrated

And she described how she and Sir Keir came to a joint decision.