UK politics live: Starmer refuses to rule out national insurance hike in upcoming Budget – UK Times

Sir Keir Starmer has ruled out the prospect of Britain paying slavery reparations as he prepares for a major Commonwealth summit – with the issue “not on the agenda”, according to Downing Street.

Asked for the Prime Minister’s view on paying compensation relating to Britain’s colonial past, a Downing Street spokesperson said on Monday: “We do not pay reparations.”

The question was put forward ahead of Sir Keir meeting the Commonwealth heads of government in Samoa on 21 October.

The matter of reparations has recently come into focus with Barbados prime minister Mia Mottley reiterating calls for Britain to atone for its past atrocities.

Our race correspondent Nadine White reports

Business leaders across Scotland are calling on Rachel Reeves to “back Scotch whisky” and cut alcohol duty.

Rachel Reeves has been urged to lower the duty placed on spirits after the previous government raised it by 10.1 per cent last year.

In a letter sent to the Treasury, the chancellor was told that last summer’s tax increase had a “damaging impact” on Scotland’s national drink.

It was signed by business leaders from organisations including the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, the Scottish Tourism Alliance, Scotland Food and Drink, UK Hospitality Scotland and the Institute of Directors and Prosper.

The group said a reduction on alcohol duty for Scottish whisky would “signal that Scotland is a competitive place to invest, would recognise the benefits of the sustainable employment for which the Scotch Whisky industry is renowned and would boost a central part of Labour’s ‘Brand Scotland’ vision”.

The government has been approached for comment.

Labour’s manifesto included a promise not to raise taxes on “working people”, including income tax, VAT and national insurance.

But the government has faced questions on whether the commitment not to raise national insurance covered employers’ contributions as well as those by employees.

At Monday’s investment summit chancellor Rachel Reeves refused to rule out hiking employers’ contributions in the October 30 Budget.

And today Sir Keir Starmer said Labour’s manifesto pledge only covered taxes on working people, further fueling speculation of a rise in national insurance contributions for employers.

Institute for Fiscal Studies director Paul Johnson saying a hike in employer NI contributions would be a “straightforward breach” of the Labour manifesto.

Jeremy Hunt, the shadow chancellor, posted on X: “It’s obvious to most people that raising national insurance would breach Labour’s manifesto pledge to … not raise national insurance!”

Sir Keir Starmer said £550 million of investment to build new homes would enable more people to get on the housing ladder.

Schroders, Man Group and Resonance announced new impact investment funds on Tuesday which will go into housebuilding.

“We’ve said as a government we’re going to fix the foundations, rebuild our country, and expressly saying ‘now is the time to back us’,” he told the BBC.

“Companies and investors are coming in today saying ‘here’s half a billion pounds’. We want to raise that, by the way, I want that to be up over £1 billion before too long.”

The money would fund construction across the country because “too many people”, especially the young, “want to get on the housing ladder because they know that owning your own home is sort of base camp for their aspirations in life”.

“They haven’t had that for many years because the last government failed.

The prime minister again declined to rule out increasing employers’ national insurance contributions but insisted the Government would keep its manifesto promises.

He told the BBC: “We were very clear in the manifesto that we wouldn’t be increasing tax on working people and we expressly said that that was income tax, that was NICs etc.”

He added: “It wasn’t just the manifesto, we said it repeatedly in the campaign and we intend to keep the promises that we made in our manifesto.

“So I’m not going to reveal to you the details of the Budget, you know that that’s not possible at this stage.

“What I will say is where we made promises in our manifesto, we will be keeping those promises.”

The prime minister is asked if weight loss drugs could play a part in helping get people back to work.

He responded: “I think these drugs could be very important for our economy and for health.”

The prime minister said the investment summit on Tuesday was a huge success.

He said: “These are investors with a huge amount of capital to to invest, but can choose where they invested. We made the case that now is the time to invest in Britain, and yesterday we’re able to announce £63bn pounds of inward investment into Britian.

“But for viewers what that means is investment into projects that are secured jobs in every part of the country.”

The prime minister is now being interviewed outside Downing Street.

Speculation that Labour is considering raising employer national insurance tax contributions has been renewed after Rachel Reeves refused to rule out the measure yesterday.

The hike would bring the levy up from its current flat rate of 13.8 per cent, with experts predicting it could raise around £17bn a year.

She said: “We are going to need to sort of close that gap between what government is spending and bringing in through tax receipts. But we are going to be a government that sticks to our manifesto commitments,” meaning not raising taxes on working people.

A Treasury source has also previously indicated that it is the view of the government that the move would be considered as a tax on business, and not working people, saying: “The commitments in the manifesto were clear and about protecting the incomes of working people.”

The Institute for Fiscal Studies’ Paul Johnson has called this into question, saying the move would be a “straightforward breach” of the Labour manifesto. However he added that it’s unlikely the party would be unable to avoid doing this in some way.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Mel Stride said it would be “absurd” for Labour to hike national insurance for employers and claim it was not a breach of the party’s manifesto.

Speaking to Sky News, he said Labour has “boxed themselves in” by “claiming they were not going to be a party that was going to have to put up taxes”.