David Cameron, the former prime minister and former foreign secretary, has revealed he had been planning to impose sanctions on two extremist members of the Israeli government over their support for violent settlers and calls to block aid entering Gaza, Patrick Wintour reports.

The Conservatives say raising employers’ national insurance contributions (NICs) would break a Labour manifesto promise. (See 8.24am.) Keir Starmer says it wouldn’t. (See 9.12am.) Who’s right?

Starmer says Labour’s manifesto was “very clear”. It says:

Labour will not increase taxes on working people, which is why we will not increase national insurance, the basic, higher, or additional rates of income tax, or VAT.

This is not “very clear” about the distinction between employees’ NICs and employers’. If anything, it is the opposite – intentionally ambiguous.

But, during the election campaign, the Tories repeatedly challenged Labour politicians to explicity rule out increasing employers’ NICs – and Labour shadow ministers repeatedly refused to give that commitment. Instead, they just stuck to the wording in the manifesto.

As a result, CCHQ repeatedly put out press releases during the campaign asserting as fact that Labour did intend to raise various taxes, including employers’ national insurance. For example, on 14 June it released one with the heading “Labour’s 18 tax rises” that started:

Laura Trott, chief secretary to the Treasury, has laid out a raft of new taxes Britain will face under a Labour government.

Trott outlined the 18 new tax rises Labour will hit the country with – everything from your home to your car and from your work to your pension.

The press released then listed 18 tax rises that it said the Tories had ruled out but that Labour hadn’t, including “extending national insurance to employer pension contributions” and “increasing employers’ national insurance (the ‘jobs tax’)”.

This is the same Trott who, having told voters during the campaign that Labour’s policy platform involved an implicit admission that employers’ NICs would go up, is now saying Labour’s promise in the campaign was the opposite. (See 8.24am.) The Conservatives are being opportunist and inconsistent.

UPDATE: At a press conference during the election campaign Trott also made a point of specifically highlighting Labour’s decision not to rule out raising employers’ national insurance. She said:

[Labour] also matched us on on income tax, and not raising employee national insurance. But that is where they have very conspicuously stopped. We openly challenge Labour to match the other tax guarantees in our manifesto. Their response? Silence.

This is what Keir Starmer said when Henry Zeffman asked him if Labour’s manifesto ruled out increasing any rate of national insurance, or if it was just ruling out increasing the employees’ rate.

Starmer replied:

We were very clear the manifesto that we wouldn’t be increasing tax on working people. We expressly said that that was income tax, that was NICs [national insurance contributions] etc, so we set that out in the manifesto.

Asked again if it was saying NICs just for employees, Starmer went on:

It was very clear from our manifesto that what we were saying is we’re not to raise tax for working people. It wasn’t just the manifesto. We said it repeatedly in the campaign, and we intend to keep the promises that we made in our manifesto.

So I’m not going to reveal to you the details of the budget. You know that that’s not possible at this stage. What I will say is where we made promises in our manifesto we’ll will be keeping those promises.

This is going to be a budget that’s going to be tough, of course, but the focus will be on rebuilding our country and ensuring that we get the growth needed in economy.

Q: Did the manifesto rule out increasing any rate of national insurance? Or was it just employees’ national insurance?

Starmer claims it was “very clear” in the manifesto that Labour would not raise taxes on working people. He says Labour will be keeping those promises.

But he says he will not discuss what is in the manifesto.

This is consistent with that Rachel Reeves said yesterday about employers’ national insurance not being covered, although Reeves was more explicit.

Good morning. Conventional wisdom (often citing George Bush, and his “Read my lips, no new taxes” pledge) says that it is fatal for politicians to break election promises. In reality, that is not always the case. David Cameron never came close to meeting his 2010 commitment to get net migration below 100,000, and that did not stop him being re-elected in 2015 (although it did help him lose the 2016 Brexit referendum). There were many reasons why Boris Johnson was forced out of office, but raising national insurance in breach of a 2019 manifesto promise is not usually seen as one of his career-ending mistakes.

Nevertheless, breaking a promise is a huge risk, and that is why the very strong hints that Rachel Reeves will raiser employers’ national insurance in the budget has opened up a key debate. As Richard Partington and Kiran Stacey report, Labour is arguing that its pledge not to raise national insurance only covered employees’ national insurance, because the party repeatedly talked about taxes on working people.

But the Conservatives are saying people clearly took the promise to cover all national insurance. Laura Trott, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, issued this statement last night, after Reeves gave an interview clarifying her interpretation of the Labour pledge. Trott said:

The chancellor has chosen Labour’s first investment summit to sow further uncertainty and chaos for businesses who are now braced for Labour’s Jobs Tax.

Regardless of what they say, it’s obvious to all that hiking employer national insurance is a clear breach of Labour’s manifesto. Rachel Reeves herself previously called it anti-business and we agree, it is a tax on work that will deter investment, employment and growth, and the OBR says it will lower wages.

Keir Starmer is giving an interview to BBC Breakfast at 8.30am, so we are likely to hear his take then.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: Keir Starmer chairs a meeting of political cabinet.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

11.30am: Wes Streeting, the health secretary, takes questions in the Commons.

After 12.30pm: MPs debate the second reading of the House of Lords (hereditary peers) bill, which will remove the right of remaining hereditary peers to sit in the Lords.

If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line (BTL) or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.

If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. I’m still using X and I’ll see something addressed to @AndrewSparrow very quickly. I’m also trying Bluesky (@andrewsparrowgdn) and Threads (@andrewsparrowtheguardian).

I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos (no error is too small to correct). And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.