The Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Emma Reynolds, has said she does not think employers are working people. The remark has opened a row over Labour's pledge not to raise taxes on working people.
"I don't think employers are working people, they are companies."
She was speaking in a broadcast interview on Sunday 1 November, defending the Budget's two-point rise in tax on savings and property income. City AM reports that she disagreed that employers had been treated unfairly and said the Budget's tax increases "were targeted and fair".
The OBR puts the yield of the rise in tax on savings and property income at about £1bn a year on average from 2028-29.
According to City AM, Labour's 2024 manifesto ruled out rises in income tax, employee National Insurance and VAT for "working people". The paper says critics argue the pledge has been broken through changes to employer taxation and the extension of frozen thresholds. That argument has not been independently checked.
Reform UK's Treasury spokesman, Robert Jenrick, attacked the remark. The Independent quotes him as saying: "Labour don't think employers are working people".