All The Times Rachel Reeves Promised Not To Hike Taxes Again

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves delivers a speech in the media briefing room of 9 Downing Street, London, Tuesday Nov. 4, 2025. Rachel Reeves this morning laid the groundwork for major tax rises in the Budget on November 26.But the big problem for the chancellor is that she has repeatedly promised not to do just that.Labour’s election manifesto last year promised that the party would not increase National Insurance, VAT or income tax if they won the election.Reeves managed to keep that promise in her first Budget as chancellor last year, even though she put up other taxes by £40 billion.She initially insisted that was a “once in a parliament” event to repair the public finances and that she would not need to come for more before the next election.But today, the chancellor hinted she might have to make more “necessary choices” to keep Britain afloat – paving the way for more tax rises in the Budget in what would be the biggest gamble of her political career.Here’s a look at all the times she has promised not to raise taxes since getting into office...July 2024After identifying a £22bn black hole in the public finances, Reeves continued to tell Sky News – and LBC – that the commitments in Labour’s election manifesto “still hold”.She also told the BBC it was “not true” they would be forced to raise taxes – and repeated this claim in the Commons.August 2024Reeves told Bloomberg Labour would not raise taxes on working people, in line with their manifesto pledges.“We will be keeping income tax, national insurance and value added tax at the rates they are for the duration of this parliament. I would like taxes on working people to be lower, but I believe that you can’t make promises without being able to say where the money is going to come from,” she said.She added: “I want to bring that tax burden high down because I want to make Britain the best place to start and grow a business and I want workign people to keep more of their own money in their pockets.”September 2024Speaking before her first Budget, Reeves told the BBC that she is “confident” economic growth would deliver “money for our public services” without a tax hike.She also told BBC Radio 4 that she wants to “protect woking people”.November 2024After unveiling her first ever Budget last year, Reeves insisted she is “not coming back with more borrowing or more taxes” when speaking to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) conference last November. December 2024When challenged by MPs over future tax rises last December, Reeves refused to repeat her promise to the CBI – but then told reporters “another load of tax rises” will not happen.At a conference in Hull, she said: “I have now set the envelope for government spending for the next few years, so I’m not going to need to come back and top that up, either with more borrowing or more taxes.”March 2025Reeves ruled out “tax and spend” policies last Spring, promising that she will hike neither taxes nor government budgets.Speaking to a BBC documentary The Making of a Chancellor, she said: “We can’t tax and spend our way to higher living standards and better public services. That’s not available in the world we live in today.”Instead the chancellor outlined further cuts to some Whitehall departments in her Spring Statement to make ends meet.April 2025Reeves told HuffPost UK in April that she would not put up income tax, VAT or National Insurance.She insisted: “I can’t write the next four years’ worth of Budgets, but we made those manifesto commitments for a reason and we will stick with those manifesto commitments, and those are not to raise the income tax, National Insurance and VAT that working people pay.”July 2025Speaking after the government’s U-turn over welfare reforms and winter fuel payments, Reeves reiterated her tax promise.She told reporters: “We’ve been really clear in our manifesto about the taxes that we won’t increase, and we’re not going to increase the taxes that working people pay, their income tax, their national insurance and their VAT, because I do recognise the struggle that ordinary working people have faced these last few years with the cost of living.”When did she change her tune?It was only in September that Reeves seemed to acknowledge that she might have to break her pledge.Speaking in a series of broadcast interviews before her speech at the Labour conference, she hinted that VAT was not due to rise – but did not give the same guarantee to other taxes.She told the BBC Radio 4′s Today programme hiking VAT would hit working people directly and trigger a rise in inflation.But she added: “I think everyone can see in the last year that the world has changed, and we’re not immune to that change.“Whether it is wars in Europe and the Middle East, whether it is increased barriers to trade because of tariffs coming from the United States, whether it is the global cost of borrowing, we’re not immune to any of those things.”However, Reeves also lashed out the widespread speculation about the Budget, saying a lot of “irresponsible” people “are talking rubbish”.The chancellor will set out Labour’s spending and tax plans for the year ahead on November 26.Related...Rachel Reeves Paves The Way For Budget Tax Rises As Labour's Economic Woes ContinueRachel Reeves Has Pretty Much Confirmed That Taxes Will Go Up In The BudgetRachel Reeves Has Just Been Handed Even More Bad News About The State Of The Economy

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All The Times Rachel Reeves Promised Not To Hike Taxes Again

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