Keir Starmer blasts ‘p***take’ Budget as Andy Burnham calls it ‘vandalism on UK’

Labour’s leader said plans to save the richest £10k a year each are ‘not trickle down, it’s taking the p***’ – as Liz Truss plots a wave of new tax cuts in the new year

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Keir Starmer slams Tory plan of ‘trickle-down economics’

Keir Starmer has branded the Tory ‘trickle-down’ Budget a ‘p***take’ as furious Andy Burnham branded it a “flagrant act of vandalism on the social cohesion of this country”.

Labour ramped up its attacks on Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng ’s decision to axe the 45p rate of income tax – handing 660,000 top earners an average of £10,000 a year.

It’s reported Liz Truss is drawing up a new round of tax cuts in the new year – from annual allowances on pension pots to a £5,000 tax break for earners on more than £100k.

Today the Prime Minister vowed to “usher in a decade of dynamism” and Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng said their tax cuts were just the “first step towards igniting growth”.

Keir Starmer today confirmed Labour would reverse the removal of the 45p tax rate for earners over £150k – but not oppose plans to cut the basic rate if income tax from 20p to 19p.

Keir Starmer speaking at a Labour conference reception last night (

Image:

Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)

In a speech to activists last night, Sir Keir said the Chancellor’s admission of Tory economic failure would be hung “around their necks” in the next election campaign.

The Labour leader said: “There’s a change in the air. There’s an atmosphere, there’s a sense that Labour is ready to deliver.

“And don’t we need change after 12 years of this shower, 12 years of failure under this government, wages stagnant for 10 years, public services on their knees.”

He added: “I didn’t agree with almost anything he said in that financial statement yesterday apart from his opening sentence, when he said there’s a ‘vicious cycle of stagnation’.

“He’s right about that and it’s their vicious cycle of stagnation. That is the verdict on 12 years of Tory government, a vicious cycle of stagnation and we need to hang that around their necks.”

Questioned by the BBC ’s Laura Kuenssberg today, Sir Keir refused to extend his current offer to freeze household energy bills for six months – compared to the Tory pledge of two years.

Keir Starmer, arrives at the Museum of Liverpool, with the Mayor of Liverpool Joanne Anderson (

Image:

PA)

Labour’s leader said it was “wrong” for the Tories to simply make the pledge based on tens of billions in borrowing, rather than costing it properly and pledging a windfall tax.

He said the Government’s “driving ideology” is now to “make the rich richer and do nothing for working people”.

“If you earn a million pounds, yesterday, you got a £55,000 tax cut, enough to pay for a nurse,” he told activists in Liverpool.

“It’s not trickle down, it’s taking the p***.”

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady told the BBC: “This is the economics of Narnia.”

And Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said Friday’s Budget was a “flagrant act of vandalism on the social cohesion of this country”.

He told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “Borrowing billions of pounds for bankers and billionaires – it’s just obscene.”

Andy Burnham said Friday’s Budget was a “flagrant act of vandalism on the social cohesion of this country” (

Image:

Vincent Cole – Manchester Evening News)

Mr Burnham added the government has “drawn battle lines with us and ordinary working people”.

The man nicknamed ‘King of the North’ – who did not rule out a return to Westminster one day – said Keir Starmer now has a shot at No10 as Labour kicks off its conference in Liverpool.

He said: “This is the first conference since we left government where I think it’s odds on that there could be a Labour government within one or two years.”

But he hit out at Keir Starmer for ruling out electoral reform, a key issue set to come to a vote at the party conference this week.

He told Sky: “I’m a little disappointed to hear the party saying it’s going to rule out electoral reform. I would say to them listen, hear the mood of conference on that particular issue.

“I hope conference will still vote in favour of that because we’ve got to maximise the chance here of a Labour-led government.”

According to the Sunday Telegraph, Treasury officials are drawing up a list of potential tax cuts including a review of lifetime and annual allowances on pension pots.

Kwasi Kwarteng and Liz Truss in the wake of Friday’s mini-Budget (

Image:

PA)

They could also give the full income tax personal allowance to earners on more than £100k, which the newspaper described as a tax break worth up to £5,000 a year for the highest earners.

Ministers could also abolish the effective limit on getting child benefit for households where one person earns more than £50,000, after it was repeatedly brought up in the leadership campaign.

The changes are said to be due as part of a full Budget next year, after Kwasi Kwarteng already reduced taxes by more than any Budget since 1972 – funded by £72bn of borrowing next year alone.

Iceland’s Managing Director today warned shoplifting is on the rise and people are handing back items at the till as the cost of living crisis bites.

Richard Walker told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “Some of [our customers] are really struggling. They were struggling before this cost of living crisis now. You can only think as bills are going up.

“We see and feel and hear that on a daily basis.

“Stories of customers leaving items at the till and telling the cashier when to stop when it gets to a certain amount.

“We’ve got things like shoplifting on the rise, people looking for value ranges. It’s very real and it’s going to get tougher as we get into the winter months.”

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