Rachel Reeves fails to say whether she’d unfreeze income tax cap in toe-curling interview

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves was left floundering this morning after being asked a simple question about whether Labour would end the tax threshold freeze. Yesterday Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) documents revealed the Chancellor’s freezing of income tax thresholds would drag millions into higher tax brackets, raking an extra £120billion into the Government’s coffers.

Despite Tory anger over the stealth tax, Mrs Reeves was unable to say whether Labour would scrap the freeze.

Asked by Amol Rajan on the Today Programme whether Labour is against the freezing of thresholds, Mrs Reeves deferred to attacking the Government.

She said: “The Conservatives have become a party of high tax because they have become a party of low economic growth, and because they have failed to grow the economy over this last decade-or-so they’re always having to turn to working people to increase taxes to fund public services.”

After she continued refusing to answer the question, Mr Rajan was forced to interrupt.

“I’m sorry but what is that plan? You just described the Conservative position, I totally understand, we’ve been reporting on that for days, where do you stand on the freezing of thresholds?”

Mrs Reeves attempted to continue talking about Labour’s plan for growth and Joe Biden, rather than answering whether she’d unfreeze tax rates.

After being interrupted again, Mrs Reeves said “taxes have become so high because the economy is not growing”.

“If we’re going to get out of this spiral of high taxes, low investment and low growth we’ve got to have a serious plan to grow the economy.”

Mr Rajan was heard audibly groaning at this point, once again having the remind the Shadow Chancellor he wanted an answer on tax bills, not growth.

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When Mrs Reeves tried interrupting him to ask “why are we in this position?” The Today presenters quipped: “Sure but that’s not what I’m asking you.”

“With great respect, we’ve talked at great length about the Conservative record over 13 years, Nick [Robinson] is going to be putting that to the Chancellor at 8.10am, where do you stand on the freezing of those tax thresholds?

“People might want to know what a Labour government would do on those tax thresholds so they know how much money they’d have on their tax bill at the end of April.”

At this, Mrs Reeves reiterated, “we want taxes on working people to be as low as possible”.

“But, I’m going to be honest, you can only do that if you grow the economy, and I’ve got plans – Labour has got those plans”

Asked for a fifth time whether Labour would unfreeze income tax thresholds, Mrs Reeves finally answered the question.

“Look, I can’t say, can I?, whether I’d reverse it because I can’t say where the money’s going to come from.”

Mrs Reeves has spent the morning warning that Labour will reverse the government’s abolition of the £1 million tax-free cap on pensions.

However, Labour has been accused of hypocrisy over this opposition, after it emerged Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting called for the policy last year.

In September Mr Streeting said Labour would scrap the pensions tax cap for doctors to boost NHS staff retention – the same reasoning behind the government’s policy decision yesterday.

Today he said the Tories’ pension saving cap abolition would be a “massive bung to the richest costing £835 million a year”.