Tories call for Starmer to sack Rachel Reeves
The Tories are calling for Keir Starmer to sack Rachel Reeves as Chancellor for breaking the law.
In a ratcheting up of the political pressure on Reeves, the opposition party has said the Chancellor should be fired for failing to register her family home when she rented it out before moving to Downing Street.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, Reeves apologised and said it was an “inadvertent mistake” not to gain a special licence for renting.
She said she has now applied for the licence and “took immediate action”.
A Tory spokesman said: “Rachel Reeves has broken the law and broken the ministerial code, but Keir Starmer is too weak to sack her.
“While the Chancellor is planning tax hikes for millions of families across the country at the Budget, it’s one rule for the Chancellor and another for everyone else.”
Pressure on Reeves intensifies
At a pre-Budget rally on Thursday, Kemi Badenoch held an event to call for Reeves’ dismissal if she turns against promises not to raise taxes at the Budget.
Badenoch said Labour should cut spending instead of raise taxes further, which could include an adoption of its savings proposals, including £23bn cuts to the welfare bill.
“Nobody voted for high taxes and out-of-control spending, but that’s what they’re getting from this weak Prime Minister,” Badenoch said.
“After her Budget last year, Rachel Reeves promised she was not coming back with more taxes. But now that looks like a lie as she is gearing up to impose more punishing tax hikes.
“The British public deserve a government with the backbone and the plan to deliver a stronger economy.
“If Rachel Reeves breaks her promise and puts up tax, she must get the axe.”
In a short press conference, Badenoch declined to comment on whether she would reverse mooted income tax hikes given she could not predict “what kind of mess Labour is going to be leaving in four years’ time”.
When asked whether she would why she chose to call for Reeves to be sacked, Badenoch told City PM: “The Chancellor is the person who does the Budget. I’d be very happy for Keir Starmer to go. I know that we’d be doing a much better job.”
The comments add to the pressures faced by the Chancellor ahead of the Budget given the government has refused to rule out hiking income tax or VAT.
At PMQs on Wednesday, Starmer blamed his Tory predecessors for inflicting more “damage” on the UK economy than previously expected.
He suggested any downgrades to productivity trend forecasts by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which could create a shortfall of some £20bn in public finances, would be due to economic failures during austerity, Brexit and Liz Truss’ mini-Budget.
Badenoch hit back at the Prime Minister, pointing out that the government’s defence of Labour manifesto commitments not to raise income tax or VAT had been abandoned.
“He is raising taxes because he is too weak to control spending. He’s blaming us. He’s blaming the OBR (Office for Budget Responsibility),” she added.
“Last week, they were blaming Brexit. Isn’t the truth that with this prime minister, it’s always someone else’s fault?”
Labour ‘can’t be trusted’
Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride said Labour “can’t be trusted” as he pointed to comments made by Reeves to business leaders last year stating she was “not coming back with more borrowing or more taxes”.
Analysts believe Reeves could face a fiscal hole of around £30bn, largely created by productivity downgrades as well as U-turns on welfare spending and higher government borrowing costs.
A spending commitment through lifting the two-child benefit cap and an effort to build larger headroom could force Reeves to raise taxes even higher.
Labour ministers have also not ruled out making spending cuts in order to keep to Reeves’ fiscal rules.
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “We’ll take no lectures from the Conservatives. They crashed the economy, sent mortgages rocketing and left NHS waiting lists at record highs.
“Yet they still haven’t apologised and they’ve done nothing to rebuild their economic credibility.