The Minister of Health warned of “difficult and big choices” in the budget, as he refused to rule out freezing tax thresholds.
Wes Streeting told Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips that the government “can’t fix 14 years in one budget” and there are a lot of choices “we have to make that we’d rather not have to do.”
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected Extending the freeze on income tax thresholds for two years until 2030 after the previous Conservative government froze it until 2028.
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This means the thresholds will not start rising with inflation again, pulling hundreds of thousands of people into higher tax bands.
Mr Streeting gave the government’s strongest signal yet that it would freeze those thresholds.
Asked whether income tax thresholds would be frozen, he told Trevor Phillips: “The Chancellor and the whole Government will have to make big, tough choices in this budget to stabilize and repair the foundations of our country so we can build a better society.” future.
“There are a great many choices we have to make that we would rather not have to make, but if we don’t make the choices now we will end up paying a high price for failure in the long run.
“We’re not willing to do that.”
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The Finance Minister is trying to save £40 billion by raising taxes and cutting spending, and is expected to announce a range of measures in the Budget on October 30.
Streeting previously voted against freezing income tax thresholds under Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government, but said he would not vote “against anything in the Chancellor’s Budget”.
exhaustion The measure was previously described as a “hidden tax on working people” when Mr Sunak announced it in 2022.
The Minister of Health insisted that the government would fulfill its promise in its statement not to increase income tax, national insurance or value-added tax on workers “despite the pressure.”
In Labour’s manifesto, the party pledged not to increase “basic, top or additional rates of income tax”, with government sources referring to this “language”.
Streeting’s refusal to rule out extending the threshold freeze further suggests that the Chancellor believes she will not breach the commitment as interest rates of 20p, 40p and 45p will remain unchanged.
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Rachel Reeves will present her first Budget on 30 October. Pic: PA
The Minister of Health added: “We cannot fix 14 years in one budget. “So it’s a process of priorities, choices and trade-offs.”
The government has come under further criticism over the past week after it emerged that the Chancellor is likely to increase National Insurance for employers.
Referring to this, Mr Streeting said: “I don’t know if that will be included in the budget, but we haven’t ruled that out or a number of other things, because we’ve been very clear in our statement that every one of us is making a promise that we’ve been making a promise that we can keep and we can.” Bear with it, and we will provide every part of this statement.
He also revealed that the NHS budget had been set by the Chancellor before announcing it in 10 days.
The spending settlement for each department was supposed to be signed by Wednesday evening, but several departments were unable to agree with the Treasury on the size of the cuts they are expected to make over the next two years in a demonstration of how large the cuts will be.