The chancellor appears to believe voters will forgive a broken promise in return for meaningful investment
Chancellor considers cut to green levies in effort to reduce cost of energy bills
In April 1975, the Labour chancellor Denis Healey sought to grip the UK’s runaway inflation and rising unemployment rates – an economic crisis triggered by the shock rise in global oil prices – by raising the basic rate of income tax.
Now Rachel Reeves, faced with her own set of difficult economic circumstances, including a multibillion-pound budget shortfall, is contemplating the same remedy – breaking a 50-year taboo by becoming the first chancellor since Healey to hike the basic rate of income tax.
It would be a nuclear option at any time, let alone in circumstances where Labour won power a year ago on a cast-iron promise not to raise income tax, national insurance or VAT.
