Rishi Sunak warned voters Labour will “run riot” with their money after the party refused to rule out a costly council tax shake-up.

The Prime Minister said an admission that Sir Keir Starmer’s manifesto is not the “sum total” of his spending plans shows the pledges are a “con”.

Labour’s refusal to crack down on the UK’s bloated welfare bill means it is inevitable they will put up taxes to fund their spending plans, he added.

Mr Sunak told the Express: “Labour has admitted their manifesto is nothing more than a con.

“At this election Keir Starmer is asking for you and your family to sign a blank cheque, and we all know what he wants to do with it: put up your taxes so he can run riot with your money.

“They won’t admit it, but the only way Labour can pay for their £38.5 billion spending black hole is by hitting working families with a £2,094 tax bill. Labour will tax your job, your car, and your family home.”

“They will even drag pensioners into a retirement tax for the first time in history. You name it, Labour will tax it, because raising taxes is in their DNA,” Mr Sunak added.

“We are the only party who will take the bold action needed to cut tax, while Labour’s tax trap manifesto will cost families. So if you think Labour will win, start saving.”

Under the “family home tax guarantee” the Conservatives have ruled out increasing the number of council tax bands or undertaking an expensive council tax revaluation as Labour is currently doing in Wales.

But shadow health secretary Wes Streeting refused to match the pledge.

Pressed on Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, he said: “We don’t want to see the tax burden on working people increase.

“None of those pledges in our manifesto requires increases in council tax or increases in fuel duty or any of the other number of taxes the Tories are claiming we want to increase.”

Mr Streeting also dismissed analysis by the The Nuffield Trust that Labour would squeeze health spending, insisting the assumption it was making was that the manifesto was the “grand sum total” of any future budgets and any future spending reviews.

“That is just wrong. That is not the way election campaigns work,” he said.

But Transport Secretary Mark Harper said Mr Streeting had “let the cat out the bag” that Labour would raise taxes.

The Conservatives have put benefit reforms at the heart of their election campaign with forecasts showing the bill will soar by £20 billion during the next five years.

But Mr Sunak said Labour “do not think that you can save a penny in the welfare bill”, signalling the party would hike taxes by £2,000 to cover their £38 billion spending commitments over the next four years.

The PM said Labour’s refusal to grip welfare costs is a “very clear difference” between the Conservatives and Sir Keir Starmer’s party.

He said: “The very clear difference in savings between us and the Labour party is, I think you can make savings from constraining the growth in the welfare bill, the Labour party do not think that you can save a penny in the welfare bill.

“PIP alone is forecast to go up by 50 per cent in the next few years, the welfare bill has already gone up by I think two thirds, we now spend more on working-age welfare for people with ill health or disability conditions than we do on schooling, transport, policing – I could go on.

“And we have seen a massive increase since the pandemic. Now, I think there are a very sensible set of reforms that you can make to support people into work because I think that work is good for them.”

Sir Keir, who has ruled out raising income tax, national insurance, or VAT, has promised a huge benefits shake-up to get millions of Britonss back to work, including reforming Universal Credit.

Labour has also said it would work with local authorities to get more disabled and sick people back into employment.

The Conservative party is promising to slash the cost of welfare to the tune of £12 billion a year by the end of the next parliament through measures aimed at helping people back into work.

Its plan includes a £700million investment in NHS mental health treatment to ensure 500,000 more people can access talking therapies by 2030.

It also includes previously announced measures, such as removing benefits for people not taking jobs after 12 months.

The number of working age people who are economically inactive has soared to record highs following the pandemic.

As well this, the Tories say they will reform the disability benefits system and target it at those most in need, tightening the criteria for work capability assessments.

The plans also include passing on the responsibility for issuing sick notes from GPs to specialist work and health professionals.

The Conservatives also promise to toughen benefit sanction rules, speed up the rollout of universal credit, and clamp down on benefit fraudsters.

Mr Sunak added: “And if you just took the level of people who are on ill-health benefits back to where they were just before the pandemic – by the way, they were coming down every year before that – that would save you almost £35bn. We’re not saying that, we’re just you can save 12.

“So that’s what I think, and that’s the major difference between us – the Labour party don’t think you can save a penny, literally not a penny, from a welfare bill that is forecast to grow at rates that are clearly unsustainable.

“Again, that’s a clear choice at this election – if you want your welfare bill controlled, so we can use that money to invest in tax cut