Rachel Reeves could face the ‘”fury” of Labour MPs if she commits to tax rises in the Autumn Budget later this month, a guest told GB News.
The Chancellor is thought to be laying the groundwork for raising income taxes and breaking one of Labour’s key manifesto promises made to voters.
Throughout the party’s campaign, candidates parroted off pledges not to raise income tax, VAT or National Insurance.
Senior political commentator Nigel Nelson has warned Ms Reeves her parliamentary party will be “furious” if she introduces higher income taxes.
However, he said that an advantage of making the decision now is to ease taxes off Britons when the next election rolls around.
“So it may be worth taking all the political flack and it’ll be monumental,” Mr Nelson told the People’s Channel.
“So she would take that political flak now on the basis that she may be able to do something later.
“Everything depends really on economic growth that she would have to grow the economy between now and the election to be able to do anything right.”
Nigel Nelson forecast a rebellion against Rachel Reeves if she raised taxes
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GB NEWS
The threat comes amid speculation that Ms Reeves will axe the two-child benefit cap after Sir Keir Starmer told ITV News he was “personally committed to driving down child poverty”.
The Prime Minister added: “You won’t have to wait much longer to see what the measures are. Some of them are already in place, the free school meals, the breakfast clubs, the free childcare, are all part of it… But look, we need to do more than that.”
The threat of increased taxes coupled with the possibility that Labour could be setting its sights on scrapping the two-child benefit cap has sparked outrage.
“This always pulls very badly with huge segments of the public that Labour is trying to win back,” he explained.
“So I’m not quite sure why they’ve come out with this, with this policy. Look, the fiscal savings argument was the argument that was put in place for having the two-child benefit by 2030.
“It’s going to cost over £3billion to actually have the abolition of the two-child benefit cap.
“And when you’re trying to actually reduce the size of the welfare budget, which is burgeoning out of all control, this seems completely nonsensical.”
Earlier this year, Sir Keir faced the wrath of Labour MPs, who raised their heads above the parapet over proposed welfare cuts.
During the campaign, Labour promised not to raise income tax, VAT and National Insurance
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GETTYThe Government was then cornered into watering down their plans to cut welfare by more than £5billion in a bid to save every penny ahead of the Budget.
Following discussions with Chief Whip Jonathan Reynolds, four MPs had the whip restored last week following their suspension in July.
New deputy leader Lucy Powell put further pressure on Ms Reeves following rumours that the Chancellor is set to abandon her party’s pledges in just over a fortnight.
Speaking to the BBC, Ms Powell said: “We should be following through on our manifesto, of course. There’s no question about that.”