Taxes

Lord Dobbs Excerpts

Tuesday 15th July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I completely agree with my noble friend on that point. Every time we hear from the party opposite, it opposes every single measure we have taken to stabilise the public finances, yet at no point has it opposed the spending that that has gone to fund. That is exactly the mistake Liz Truss made in her mini-Budget, which saw mortgage payments rocket for working people. They are still paying the price of those higher mortgages, and that is something we absolutely will not do.

[Lord Dobbs (Con)]

My Lords, I understand why the Minister refuses to give hypotheticals on forthcoming tax. However, this Government made a clear commitment not to introduce taxes on working people. They have looked very much like a fish on the end of a hook over the last 12 months when trying to define what a working person is. Perhaps they should have thought about that before they made such a clear, binding commitment. Without being hypothetical, does the Minister agree with the Chancellor, who, during that election campaign, defined working people as

“people who go out to work and work for their incomes … There are people who do have savings, who have been able to save up, and those are working people as well”?

Does the Minister stand by that commitment?

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

A working person is someone who goes out to work. The Government have pledged not to increase taxes on working people. We stand by that, which is why we are not increasing their income tax, national insurance contributions or VAT.