Powell has also repeated her call for the two-child limit to be lifted “in full”
Lucy Powell has said that Labour must stand by its election manifesto pledge to not raise taxes.
This comes amid reports that chancellor Rachel Reeves has notified the spending watchdog that she plans to raise income tax at the Autumn Budget on 26 November.
The government is said to be looking at a 2% increase in income tax, paired with a 2% cut in National Insurance.
Asked in a BBC Radio 5 Live interview yesterday how important Powell thought it was that Labour stick to its manifesto pledges in the upcoming Budget, she said: “It’s really important we stand by the promises we were elected on and that we do what we said we would do.”
Labour’s newly elected deputy leader, who was backed by new soft left group Mainstream during her campaign, said: “I want to see more money not less money, more money going back into the pockets of ordinary people.”
Powell added that Labour must tackle the cost-of-living crisis that “most ordinary people are facing”, and which the wealthy “few” are shielded from.
Asked by Matt Chorley if it would be “ok” for Labour to break its promise to not raise income tax, national insurance and VAT, Powell said: “We should be following through on our manifesto, of course. There’s no question about that.”
Yesterday, former prime minister Gordon Brown said that “only the total abolition of the two-child limit is acceptable”.
It is understood that the government is currently considering only a partial removal of the cap.
Powell said that the two-child limit should be lifted in full. She argued that the full abolition of the welfare limit is “the only way we’re going to see the grotesque levels of child poverty that are in this country right now beginning to fall”.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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