LONDON (Reuters) – New British finance minister Rachel Reeves said on Tuesday she would need to raise taxes in her Oct. 30 budget, confirming expectations of such a move after she earlier this week set out a 22 billion pound shortfall in this year’s budget.
“I think that we will have to increase taxes in the budget,” said Reeves, who took control of the finance ministry following the Labour Party’s resounding election win on July 4. She made the comments in an interview with The News Agents podcast.
Reeves had previously stopped short of explicitly confirming that taxes would rise but had said “difficult decisions” would be needed in the budget, including on tax.
She did not say which taxes would be increased, and repeated her commitment not to raise the rates of income tax, National Insurance social security payments, value-added tax and corporation tax.
The tax increase will come on top of 13.5 billion pounds worth of spending cuts over the next two years that were announced on Monday. Reeves said the cuts were needed because the previous Conservative government had covered up the true state of the public finances.
The Conservative Party, which was in power for the last 14 years, denies those accusations and says Labour had always planned to increase taxes.
(Reporting by William James; Editing by Gareth Jones)
