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UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has defended his claim that the Labour party would raise household taxes by £2,000 if it came to power, a figure disputed by the Treasury’s most senior civil servant and the Office for Statistics Regulation.
James Bowler, the Treasury’s permanent secretary, said that figures used by Sunak in a televised debate on Tuesday “include costs beyond those provided by the civil service and published online by HM Treasury”, contradicting the prime minister’s claim they were based on independent analysis by civil servants. The OSR meanwhile said that those who heard the claim would have no way of knowing it referred to a sum accumulated over four years.
“I think people know that I’m across the detail when it comes to numbers,” Sunak said as part of an interview to be aired next week, details of which were released on Friday.
Opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer accused the prime minister of deliberately lying about about the figure, and insisted that the Labour party would not bring in tax rises for “working people”.
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Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has insisted she has no plans to revive a plan to tax the pension savings of higher UK earners, while declining to categorically rule out the possibility.
A spokesperson for Reeves told the Financial Times that there were no plans to change the current regime of pension tax relief, responding to claims made by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in Tuesday’s debate.
Reeves last week ruled out any tax increases beyond what has already been announced by the party.
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JPMorgan’s long-standing chief executive Jamie Dimon is in line for a prominent UK honour, the Financial Times reported, alongside former Google chair Eric Schmidt.
Officials were instructed to begin the process in mid-May, a person with knowledge of the situation told the Financial Times, with the Foreign, Commonwelath and Development Office taking the lead, as is usual for non-UK citizens.
If confirmed, the honour — the status of which has not been confirmed — is likely to be the most prominent awarded to a non-British banker since the granting of an honorary damehood to Santander chair Ana Botín in 2015.
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Dale Vince, the founder of gas and electricity supplier Ecotricity, has emerged as one of the largest donors to the Labour party so far this year, with £1.6mn donated during the first quarter.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Vince urged voters to vote for the Labour rather than the Green party.
“Voting for a Green MP is a risk because although they may not prevent Labour getting a majority, Labour needs a big majority to implement their green economic plan,” he told the paper.
Vince, who told the Financial Times his total contributions to the party have reached £5mn, has also donated to environmental activist group Just Stop Oil.
