Keir Starmer refuses to rule out employer's National Insurance rise as he insists it won't break manifesto pledges

By StephenRigley

Keir Starmer again declined to rule out increasing employers' national insurance contributions but insisted the Government would keep its manifesto promises.

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The Prime Minister said: "We were very clear in the manifesto that we wouldn't be increasing tax on working people and we expressly said that that was income tax, that was NICs etc."

He added: "It wasn't just the manifesto, we said it repeatedly in the campaign and we intend to keep the promises that we made in our manifesto.

"So I'm not going to reveal to you the details of the Budget, you know that that's not possible at this stage.

"What I will say is where we made promises in our manifesto, we will be keeping those promises."

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The Government will take "tough decisions so we can invest the future", Sir Keir Starmer told a political Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

In a readout of the talks, a Labour Party spokesperson said: "The Prime Minister then turned to the Budget and said the Government would take 'tough decisions so we can invest in the future'. He added that financial stability and growth is the first mission of this Government.

"The Prime Minister said that the first Labour Budget in 14 years would prioritise stabilising the economy, fixing the foundations, and growing our way to a better Britain. He added that prioritising growth is vital to break the country out of the low-growth, high-tax doom loop it has been stuck in for the past 14 years."

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the Budget and spending review would be an "opportunity to put the country on a firmer footing" and highlighted a £22 billion black hole in the public finances which the Government says its Tory predecessor left behind.

This needs to be filled just to "keep public services standing still", Ms Reeves warned, adding that "the scale of inheritance meant there would have to be difficult decisions on spending, welfare and tax - and that the long-term priority had to be unlocking private sector investment to drive economic growth".

She warned that the Government would be unable to "turn around 14 years of decline in one year or one Budget" but that it would deliver on priorities to "protect working people, fix the NHS and rebuild Britain".