Friday, November 15, 2024

Politics latest: Budget a ‘choice between investment or decline’, minister says; Reform MP calls slavery reparations ‘absurd’

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Earlier, we spoke to education secretary Bridget Phillipson about the budget. 

She refused to comment on what would be in it, and stumbled over questions on whether a pledge not to raise taxes for working people was valid for the whole of this parliament. (It is, the government has since clarified – see post 9.30). 

Ms Phillipson went onto face questions on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, when she refused to be drawn on what the definition of a working person is.

She simply said that “when people look at their payslips, they will not see higher taxes.”

Ms Phillipson refused to say whether a small business owner with an average net profit of around £13,000 would be considered a “working person” by the government.

“We can go through a range of different hypotheticals about who may or may not be captured by tax measures that may or may not happen in the Budget,” she said.

“When Rachel is sat here next weekend you can ask her about the measures that she’s announced.

“I know it’s frustrating ahead of the Budget that I can talk about some areas, but not all of it.”

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