LABOUR politicians lied to the public about there being no need to raise taxes in order to win the general election, according to Shadow Commons Leader Chris Philp.

He said on GB News: “We’ve seen those warnings from the CBI and the Institute of Directors this morning and many other business groups saying that Labour’s planned tax increases will hit workers in the pocket, they’ll destroy jobs, and they will push some businesses overseas.

“Those are certainly things that a Conservative administration, had it been elected, wouldn’t do. I think what is going to really make people angry about today’s Budget is that, essentially, Labour will break all of those manifesto promises.

“It will become painfully clear that Labour had lied to the British public in order to win that election a few months ago, because they fought saying that none of their plans needed big tax increases and it turns out that is completely untrue.

“This whole black hole thing has been comprehensively debunked. About half of the supposed amount relates to above inflation public sector pay rises without any conditions attached to them, which the current Labour government decided to give after the election.

“That was their choice. They can hardly blame that on a previous administration. And of course, you manage pressures in the financial year the whole time. There’s nothing different about that.

“Jeremy Hunt’s plans that he set out last March in his final budget had day to day spending rising by 1% over inflation across the next five years. This black hole stuff is complete nonsense.

“We got inflation down to 2%, it’s now even lower than 2%. The economy was growing, the fastest in the G7 for the first half of this year, unemployment…is half what it was when the last Labour government left office.

“These claims are pretty much nonsense. Labour planned all along to do what socialist governments always do, which is increase borrowing, increase spending, and increase taxes.

“They just didn’t have the honesty to say that to the British public during the election. Instead, they lied, saying that their plans did not require tax increases when they knew all along that they did.”