UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Monday (28) that taxes in the country need to rise so that it can rebuild public services and fix the foundations of the economy, challenging his critics to suggest how they would tackle the problems. “unprecedented” in the country.
On Wednesday, Finance Minister Rachel Reeves will present her first tax and spending plans, which are expected to address a difficult fiscal picture without raising taxes on workers, cutting spending on priority ministries or scaring investors with excessive debt.
Starmer, whose Labor Party won a landslide election victory in July, said in a speech that tough trade-offs are needed to “repair the foundations” of the economy.
“We have to be realistic about where we are as a country… These are unprecedented circumstances,” he said, noting that his government has to deal with a weak economy and poor public services.
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“But I’m not going to use that as an excuse. I hope to be judged on my ability to deal with this,” he added.
Labor will borrow to boost growth and raise taxes to “avoid austerity and rebuild public services”, he said.
The government is looking to find around £40 billion in tax rises and spending cuts to tackle the fiscal gap while also putting more money into areas such as health and education.
Starmer said he rejects the “fiction that you can cut taxes and spend more on public services without making any changes.”
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Shortly after the election, Reeves said the country’s fiscal situation was worse than previously thought due to a £22 billion hole she said she inherited from the previous government.
