Starmer says UK ‘can’t just tax our way to growth’ as he brushes off call for wealth tax – UK politics live | Politics

At PMQs it is hard to “win” against a prime minster by getting them to admit something embarrassing. But it is relatively easy to unsettle a PM by making it obvious when they are ducking a question, and Kemi Badenoch achieved that successfully today. The ultra-succinct reply that Keir Starmer gave to her first question (see 12.06pm) only served to highlight the extent to which he was flannelling like fury in his second answer (see 12.07pm), when he refused to rule out a further freeze in tax or national insurance thresholds in the budget. The Tories have now put out a press release saying this means “a toxic cocktail of Labour tax rises are coming in the autumn budget”.

They are almost certainly right about tax rises being on the way. But you did not need…