First, Keir Starmer struggled to define what a woman is. Now, he’s having difficulty explaining what counts as a working person. Ahead of next week’s Budget, the Prime Minister has been accused of tying himself in knots over who will be expected to carry the burden in the Budget. During the general election campaign, both Starmer and his chancellor Rachel Reeves regularly said the tax burden on ‘working people’ was too high. In the manifesto, the party pledged to protect ‘working people’ from paying more. Now ahead of a tax-raising Budget (Reeves is expected to try to raise £35 billion through tax), Starmer is under pressure to explain who exactly this refers to. Those who don’t fall into the category could find their taxes going up significantly.
The responses from the government have been mixed. Those who have so far had their working person status questioned include high earners (100k or more), business owners and the asset rich. In an interview from the Commonwealth summit in Samoa, Starmer appeared to suggest that landlords and shareholders are not ‘working people’. When asked on Sky News whether ‘someone who works but gets their income from assets as well, such as shares and property’ was a working person, the Prime Minister replied: ‘Well, they wouldn’t come within my definition. I think people watching this will know whether they’re in that group or not.’ He suggests that a working person tends to get ‘paid in a sort of monthly cheque’.
The comments have led to a backlash from landlords, entrepreneurs and more. However, since then his spokesman has suggested that people with a ‘small amount’ of shares also counted. The Chancellor has since clarified that Starmer is at least a ‘working person’ – as he gets his income from going out to work and ‘working for our country’ (even if he doesn’t always pay for his own clothes). Treasury Minister James Murray told Sky News this morning that a ‘working person is someone who goes out to work and who gets their income from work’.
Why does this matter? It comes down to whether or not this government can be accused of breaking its promises in the Budget. Starmer risks tripping up over what a working person is in a bid to argue that his government is not breaking a manifesto pledge. Already, he seems to be alienating swathes of voters who view themselves as working people who are doing their bit. The risk is that voters decide that while what he’s saying could be argued on a technical point, it is not in the spirit of what was promised during the campaign.
Comments