Coming back for more. Reeves v Rayner.20 May 2025 21:46
“Angela Rayner sent a secret memo to Rachel Reeves pushing for a new tax raid on savers.
In the document, the Deputy Prime Minister proposed eight tax increases including reinstating the pensions lifetime allowance and changing dividend taxes.
She also suggested new raids on the million people who pay the additional rate of income tax and a higher corporation tax level for the banks.
The measures would raise taxes by £3 billion to £4 billion a year, according to estimates cited in the document. The real figure would be much higher, as no specific estimates were given for some policies.
The memo amounts to a direct challenge to the Chancellor’s approach this year of using spending cuts rather than tax rises to fill the black hole in the nation’s finances.
It is the clearest evidence to date of a split at the top of the Government about economic strategy.
Allies of the Deputy Prime Minister have said she has become increasingly exasperated by having to publicly defend Treasury spending cuts, and is pushing back in private.
Treasury insiders are understood to be making it clear that while Ms Reeves welcomes contributions from all Cabinet colleagues, as Chancellor she decides taxation and spending policy.
The memo looks set to become the blueprint for changes for which the Left will push in the autumn Budget, amid mounting speculation that Ms Reeves will be forced to raise tax because of challenging economic forecasts.
Left-wing MPs are increasingly in uproar over the spending squeeze, with Sir Keir Starmer facing growing rebellions over scrapping the universal winter fuel payment and cuts to disability benefits.
On Tuesday, Ms Reeves offered her first public hint that she could change the winter fuel policy, saying she would “listen” to concerns, while at a meeting with Labour MPs on Monday night the Prime Minister was challenged over the welfare cuts.
It comes amid wider concern on the Left about the direction Sir Keir and his inner circle have taken in recent months, including their efforts to counter Reform’s popularity surge with tougher immigration policies.”
Who voted for these morons ? Not me…….
Sign In
Follow the stocks
