Labour is standing on a precipice: if it breaks its election promise on tax, it will never be trusted again | Owen Jones

"It's rare to watch a political calamity advance with such gruesome inevitability. Rachel Reeves's reported plan to shred Labour's flagship tax pledge in the upcoming budget is so plainly disastrous that it invites the suspicion that the party leadership has completely lost its senses. But madness would be too generous an alibi for a faction that long ago abandoned any purpose beyond wielding icepicks against its own left."

"For example: Labour will not put up your income tax, national insurance or VAT, tweeted Reeves on 4 June 2024, denouncing the Conservatives as the party of high tax. A week later, Keir Starmer told Sky News in Grimsby: We will not raise tax on working people. The manifesto couldn't be clearer: Labour will not increase taxes on working people, specifically citing national insurance, income tax and VAT."

Labour faces internal turmoil over a reported plan to abandon its flagship no-increase tax pledge by raising income tax. The pledge had provided rare coherence amid a directionless 2024 campaign that produced only a third of the vote. Manifesto commitments explicitly ruled out increases in income tax, national insurance and VAT. Reeves reportedly considers a 2p income tax rise paired with cuts in employee national insurance, a change judged ineffective as compensation. The comparison to the Liberal Democrats' 2010 tuition-fee reversal frames the move as a potential political suicide. Concerns persist that refusal to tax the wealthy will force damaging service cuts.

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