Moment Rachel Reeves requested ‘how will you keep in your job’ stay on Sky | TV & Radio | Showbiz & TV | EUROtoday

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves tried to defend her funds choices as a Sky News reporter requested her: “How, in good conscience, can you stay on in your job?” Surrounded by nurses, Reeves was holding a post-budget information convention when the query arose because the reporter identified she was extending the freeze on tax thresholds. However, they reminded her that in Budget 2024, she had mentioned that extending the brink freeze would harm working individuals and would take more cash out of their paychecks.

“In the manifesto, we were very clear it was the rates of income tax, National Insurance and VAT,” Reeves insisted. “But I’m not going to get into semantics. I recognise that we are asking people to contribute more by freezing those allowances. They were already frozen by the previous government from 2021 to 2028, and we’re freezing them for a further three years,” she mentioned.

She acknowledged: “I do recognise that I was asking ordinary people to pay a little bit more, but I’ve managed to keep that contribution as low as I possibly can by closing loopholes and asking those with the broadest shoulders to pay more.

“That’s why there shall be a surcharge on properties price greater than £2 million. It’s why we’re rising taxes on financial savings, dividends and property earnings.

“It’s why, as well, we’re getting a grip of some of the waste and inefficiency in the welfare budget by taking luxury cars out of Motability, and more face-to-face assessments for disability benefits.

“So we maintain that contribution from working individuals as little as potential,” she reiterated. “And this yr and within the years going ahead, we’re taking £150 a yr off of individuals, power payments for all households, working households and pensioners. And we’re in a position to do this by eradicating these levies from individuals’s payments.

She then blamed the earlier authorities for the choices she made within the funds. “…If you are asking, does this have a cost for working people. I acknowledge it does. I said that in the budget last year. I’m not going to pretend otherwise today, but I do think that is the right decision in the circumstances we face.

“The OPR have immediately revised down their estimates of productiveness and progress by nought level three proportion factors. They say that it’s going to take out £16 billion of tax income we might in any other case have introduced in.

“And they are very clear that it is not because of any decision that this government has taken in the last 16 months. It is what has happened in the previous 14 years: Brexit, the pandemic, and, frankly, the austerity and chaos of the previous government.

“We’re all having to pay a value for that, and it is my job to be sure that the numbers add up in order that we will guarantee we develop our economic system, maintain rates of interest falling and maintain inflation down as properly.”