Starmer appears to ponder rise to bosses' NI
LABOUR appears to be considering raises to employers’ National Insurance and a loosening of Treasury fiscal rules in the forthcoming Budget.
Premier Sir Keir Starmer conspicuously declined to rule out either move at Prime Minister’s Questions when pressed by the Tories on his plans.
Lame-duck Tory leader Rishi Sunak pressed him on both National Insurance and methods of calculating debt, but Sir Keir dodged commitments as he struggles to square his pledges of no return to austerity, fiscal probity and the “black hole” in the public finances he claims to have inherited.
Similar stories
Instead of responding to changed circumstances by adjusting policy, Reeves is using fiscal ‘rules’ as an excuse to force government departments to make even deeper cuts than she had already flagged, says CLAUDIA WEBBE
In the first of two articles, ROBERT GRIFFITHS argues that despite a parliamentary majority, Labour’s timid Budget fails to seize a historic opportunity and lacks the ambition needed to address Britain’s deep social and economic crises



