Starmer says he remains committed to manifesto pledge not to raise income tax, VAT or employee NICs
Q: Will you stick to your pledge not to raise income tax, national insurance or VAT?
Starmer says that is a commitment he will keep.
He says the government cannot just reach for taxes when it needs money; it must promote growth.
Key events
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Starmer signals fiscal rules won’t be changed, saying ‘there’s enough uncertainty as it is’
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Starmer says UK will need more steel and ‘all options on the table’ to protect Scunthorpe steel plant
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Starmer says he remains committed to manifesto pledge not to raise income tax, VAT or employee NICs
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Starmer resists call to cancel Trump’s state visit invitation, saying it’s not in UK’s interest to ‘rip up’ relationship with US
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Starmer says further measures to help car sector and life sciences to come
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Starmer says he will cut time needed to get licences for clinical trials, to help life sciences sector
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Starmer says global consequences of Trump tariffs ‘could be profound’
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Starmer tells car sector ‘we are going to back you to the hilt’
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Starmer gives speech on Trump tariffs and car industry
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Inquiry into Southport murders has started, chaired by former appeal court judge Adrian Fulford, Yvette Cooper says
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Trump will use tariffs as ‘big negotiating tool’, Nigel Farage claims
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No 10 refuses to say whether or not government thinks Trump might reverse tariff policy
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No 10 confirms it’s still opposed to rejoining customs union, saying Trump tariffs have not led to rethink on EU policy
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No 10 won’t say if Starmer urged other countries to avoid retaliatory tariffs in talks over weekend
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Does Starmer have a strategy for dealing with Trump tariffs?
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Starmer says his ‘only priority’ is ‘people of Britain, and what makes them better off’
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Rights groups urge Starmer to dial down anti-migrant rhetoric
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Green party says Labour ‘wrong to apply brakes on sale of EV cars’
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Heidi Alexander says EV rule changes were planned anyway, but Trump tariffs brought ‘renewed urgency’ to announcement
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Decision to ease EV rules for car firms will have ‘negligible’ impact on carbon emissions, says transport secretary
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‘Tinkering’ and ‘not giant leap required’ – Starmer fails to impress car sector with plan to help it cope with tariffs
Starmer signals fiscal rules won’t be changed, saying ‘there’s enough uncertainty as it is’
During the Q&A Sam Coates from Sky News asked Keir Starmer if he could pledge to keep Rachel Reeves’s fiscal rules “exactly as they are” for the whole of this parliament.
Starmer replied:
The fiscal rules were put in for a purpose, and that is because Liz Truss tried an experiment with this country of putting to one side fiscal rules and checks and balances. And that caused a massive impact on the lives of working people as inflation and interest rates went through the roof.
We are not prepared to inflict that kind of damage on working people. That’s why we put the fiscal rules in the first place, to create that kind of stability.
It’s why we were able to invest at the budget and set out, as we did, the steps for the future in the spring statement. Now is the time to build on that …
So the reaction to the challenges of the last few days is not for us to say, ‘Well, the first thing we’ll now do is put to one side our fiscal rules.’ It is to remind people why we put them in place in the first place, which is to create the certainty that we need.
There is enough uncertainty and insecurity as it is. Our job is to calmly and pragmatically take forward these really important steps today for our country.
That was a strong argument for not changing the fiscal rules. But, because Starmer did not explicitly rule out changing the fiscal rules, lobby correspondents at first thought there might be some significance in the omission.
Alex Wickham from Bloomberg said:
Keir Starmer does not commit to fiscal rules remaining completely unchanged for the full Parliament, asked by @SamCoatesSky
And Harry Cole from the Sun said:
PM commits to the tax lock…. some debate over whether the fiscal rules survive too
PM commits to the tax lock…. some debate over whether the fiscal rules survive too
— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) April 7, 2025
Someone seems to have had a word to clear this up, because Wickham subsequented posted this.
No10 stresses fiscal rules are iron clad and non negotiable
And Cole posted this.
No10 insist there is no debate about the Fiscal Rules…
