KEIR Starmer is set to announce major spending cuts if Labour gain power at the General Election after repeatedly ruling out major tax rises.
According to the i newspaper Labour will announce there will be no further spending promises in their party manifesto, which is due to be revealed later on Thursday.
Party insiders have reportedly admitted Labour will be forced into “really difficult” decisions around public services when it comes to the Budget.
While Labour will not address specifically where the cuts could fall, it is believed services such as local government, police, and immigration officials are most at risk.
When asked earlier this week whether he was willing to revisit the party’s spending plans, Starmer said: “It is always tempting for a government to go for tax and spend – but I’m not going to pull those levers, we don’t intend to pull those levers, we want to go for the lever marked growth.”
However, according to economists Labour would face “pretty unappealing” choices for signing up to the Tory Government’s existing spending plans.
It is also believed that the party will have to increase taxes on savers and businesses to fit the bill to improve services in the short term.
A senior Labour insider told the i newspaper that a sustainable boost to public services could take more than a single term of government to be put into place.
They said: “It will be really difficult. “But there will be an immediate injection of funding which will help, and then we are going to grow the economy.
“That is the only way. That’s why we need a decade of national renewal.”
Labour sources also told the paper that the party was not able to identify any specific cuts without carrying out a comprehensive spending review once in office.
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has already promised not to increase income tax, national insurance or VAT during the next parliament.
Carl Emmerson, deputy director of the IFS, said: “Unless they get lucky on growth, they would either have to do more on tax rises that they haven’t told us about, or they would have to deliver cuts to the public services that have already been hit by the austerity of the 2010s.
“I don’t think it’s plausible to deliver those cuts and not see a deterioration of quality in those services.”
