BLOW Brits brace for tax HIKES to fund Keir's watered-down benefits bill after last-ditch U-turn to quell rebellion

Scottish Sun

a day ago

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BRITS must be braced for tax rises this autumn after Sir Keir Starmer's welfare plans were watered down, a Cabinet Minister has indicated.
Pat McFadden put Brits on notice that abandoning the benefits crackdown will have "financial consequences" in a major warning shot ahead of the Budget.
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Sir Keir Starmer sees savings from benefits overhaul wiped out
Credit: Getty
Economists have already declared that the expected £5 billion of savings expected from the welfare overhaul will now save nothing.
It gives Chancellor Rachel Reeves a financial headache as she is already trying to find £1.5 million from the partial retreat of the winter fuel plans.
It puts her on a collision course with her own MPs as she decides between spending cuts, tax hikes or borrowing to balance the books.
When asked to specifically rule out tax rises this autumn in the Budget, he said: "I'm not going to speculate on the budget."
Mr McFadden told Times Radio: 'This is a decision that will have financial consequences. The process of the last couple of weeks does have financial consequences.
'They will all be taken together with all the other moving parts that there are in the economy, in the fiscal picture at the Budget, and that will be set out at the time.
'But I'm not denying that when you set out on a plan that has a cost attached to it, and then you have to change that or take it forward in slower time, that is a decision with financial consequences.'
The Sun Says
LOST CONTROL
WHAT total chaos.
Normally, a Government with a huge majority would mark its first year in office by trumpeting a raft of great achievements.
Sir Keir Starmer's Number Ten has chosen to blast itself in both feet.
Last week's U-turn to try to salvage his flagship benefits bill was bad enough.
Last night's second capitulation to Labour rebels renders it almost meaningless.
No savings worthy of the name. No reform. No clue. We can now look forward to a second year in which Labour jacks up our taxes to fill the financial black hole.
Still, at least the Prime Minister's Left-wing MPs will be happy. They look like the ones in control now.
Mr McFadden insisted that the government would stick to its manifesto pledges of not hiking income tax, national insurance or VAT.
The intervention came as the government abandoned the Personal Independence Payment element of the welfare shake-up putting them on hold until a review is carried out and reports back in the autumn next year.
He also told Labour rebels with their eyes set on scrapping the two-child benefit cap they could be disappointed.
He told the BBC that governments "can't spend the same money twice" in a stinging rebuke.
Asked explicitly whether he could rule out tax rises, Mr McFadden said: "I'm not going to speculate on the budget."
Shadow Chancellor Pat McFadden said: "Tax rises are on the way to pay for Labour's mismanagement of the economy.
"Hard working families will have an agonising summer waiting to hear how Rachel Reeves will claw back the cash to make up for the failings of this weak Prime Minister."
Both the Resolution Foundation and the Institute for Fiscal Studies said there will be no net savings from the humiliating welfare climbdown.