Keir Starmer refuses to rule out fuel duty rise in upcoming Budget
Sir Keir Starmer has insisted he seeks to "inject some hope" and that things will improve by the next election after warnings of more pain to come.
However, the prime minister was unable to say a rise in fuel duty would not be part of the package when the Budget is announced on October 30.
In a speech in 10 Downing Street's rose garden on Tuesday, Starmer warned that the next Budget would be "painful" and that the public need to "accept short-term pain for long-term good".
Some believe the speech paves the way to tax rises.
Doubling down on his speech, Starmer told reporters in Berlin on Wednesday the public would still see an improvement by the end of the Parliament.
He said: “Let me inject some hope because the whole point of this exercise is to make sure we can bring about the change that we need.
“If you don’t clear out the rot and don’t do it properly, you’ve got nothing to build on, and therefore this is a vital step.”
Challenged on specific tax rises, the prime minister reiterated his manifesto commitment not to raise income tax, national insurance or VAT – which he has previously described as taxes on “working people”.
But he was unable to rule out the first rise in fuel duty since 2010, saying he would not “speculate” on the Budget.
He said: “Whatever party is in power, the questions about what’s going to be in the Budget are never questions answered before the Budget.
“But my absolute determination is to have economic growth. And I do not think that the only levers that a government can pull, particularly a Labour government, is simply tax and spend.”
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Commentators have warned that fuel duty could be increased at the Budget, with the RAC’s head of policy Simon Williams saying the 5p discount cost £2 billion but was not passed on to drivers.
He said: “We’d normally be against any increase in duty, but we’ve long been saying drivers haven’t been benefiting from the current discount due to much higher-than-average retailer margins.”
Separately on Wednesday, Chancellor Rachel Reeves declined to rule out increases in inheritance tax or capital gains tax, saying she was not going to “write a Budget two months ahead of delivering it”.
Senior Conservatives have accused Labour of being dishonest about its plans for taxes during the election campaign.
Leadership contender Robert Jenrick said the government was “shamelessly rewriting history” to lay “the groundwork for huge tax rises” while former prime minister Rishi Sunak said Labour had always been planning to increase taxes.
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Along with questions about tax rises, the prime minister has attempted to fend off accusations of cronyism following revelations Lord Waheed Alli, a major Labour donor, had received a security pass for 10 Downing Street.
Sir Keir denied that there was any impropriety in giving Lord Alli a pass, saying he had been assisting in Labour’s transition into government.
He said: “He had a pass for a short time, the work he did finished and he hasn’t got a pass any more. That’s the long and the short of it.”
The Conservatives have written to Simon Case, the Cabinet Secretary, demanding more details on the circumstances of Lord Alli’s pass.
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