Unite general secretary Sharon Graham is calling for an end to the freeze on income tax thresholds and a cap on energy company profits in Wednesday's Budget. She directs the demands at Andy Burnham and the Chancellor, John Healey.
Writing in the Mirror on 25 October, she says:
"This Budget is Andy Burnham's first real test."
Graham also wants public investment raised by 1% of GDP, which Unite puts at "around £28 billion per year". She cites a "£500 billion public investment backlog". "It's time to take a different path," she writes.
She claims the threshold freeze will cost the average worker £5,800 if it runs to 2031. She also says energy bills are "forecast to jump by another £400 in January". Her article gives no source for either figure, and neither has been independently checked.
Unite says ending the threshold freeze and capping energy company profits would give the average double-income household an extra £700 a year. That is the union's own estimate.
The Mirror says Graham wants the government to stop reaching for the "lever of the working-class pocket" while refusing to raise taxes on the richest 1%. These are union demands, not reported government plans.