Labour Urged to Abandon Tax Pledges to Counter Farage Threat

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Labour Urged to Abandon Tax Pledges to Counter Farage Threat

 

Keir Starmer is under mounting pressure to rethink Labour’s core economic pledges after Louise Haigh, the former transport secretary, called on him to abandon restrictions on tax rises in order to tackle what she described as an “existential” threat from Nigel Farage and Reform UK.

 

In a scathing critique following Labour’s disappointing local election results, Haigh argued that the party must urgently reset its economic strategy to win back disillusioned voters. Writing in The Times, she challenged Starmer’s refusal to consider raising income tax, VAT or national insurance, insisting that Labour’s “self-imposed tax rules” are preventing the bold investment necessary to rebuild public trust.

 

“It is now urgent that we develop a vision and a strategy that is confident in our values, sets the terms of the debate and takes the fight to Reform, rather than letting the fight come to us,” she wrote. “That is the only way to hold our perilous coalition together.”

 

Haigh warned that sticking to current plans risked alienating working-class voters and losing further ground to Farage. “I believe the only way to achieve that is through an economic reset, through ripping up our self-imposed tax rules and by a serious programme of investment and reindustrialisation,” she said. “Because Nigel Farage is not wooing these voters with a traditionally right-wing offer.”

 

Haigh resigned from the cabinet in 2024 following revelations about a past fraud offence, but remains a significant voice on Labour’s left. Her intervention reflects growing unrest among MPs who fear the party’s policy stance is failing to resonate with the public. According to Haigh, Labour’s achievements are being overshadowed by unpopular reforms, including means-testing the winter fuel allowance and welfare cuts. “Voters are desperate for change and they’ve sensed from us that we’re not capable or interested in delivering it,” she said. “For my brilliant former cabinet colleagues, it will be just as frustrating as the unpopular policies are drowning out any good they’re achieving.”

 

Health Secretary Wes Streeting acknowledged the rising influence of Reform, saying the party posed a “real threat” to Labour and that a political “realignment” was underway. “It’s not yet clear whether at the next general election it will be Reform or the Conservatives that are Labour’s main challenges, but we’ve got to take that threat seriously,” he said. “We are going at those challenges as hard and fast as we can.”

 

Streeting defended controversial decisions like cutting winter fuel payments, arguing such choices were necessary to fund critical public services. “Every single measure we’ve taken to raise more money for the National Health Service, for example, has not been popular but the reason we’ve done that is because people wouldn’t thank us if we left the NHS rotting in the crisis that we inherited,” he said.

 

Dan Carden, chair of the Blue Labour group, offered a bleak assessment of the party’s standing with working-class voters. “It was the working class that turned its back on Labour last Thursday,” he said. “They understand that the present system is not working in their interests or for their values. People feel abandoned — not just economically, but morally.”

 

Labour backbencher Emma Lewell echoed those concerns, urging a fundamental shift. “The Labour Party doesn’t need to lurch right or left, we need to do what we say we will do and do it in line with our core values and principles of social justice and fairness,” she wrote.

 

In a personal reflection on recent campaigning in Runcorn, Haigh recounted how voters questioned Labour’s commitment to renationalisation. Despite having legislated for rail renationalisation, she found herself unable to convince a sceptical constituent. “Voters are desperate for change and they have sensed from us that we are not capable or interested in delivering it,” she said.

 

Haigh concluded with a stark warning that unless Labour clearly defines its values and confronts the populist appeal of Reform head-on, it risks repeating the Conservative Party’s collapse. “Ultimately, we must be more confident in our own values, not chased off the pitch by Reform,” she said. “As Alastair Campbell said last week: ‘This Labour government’s got to be more Labour, not more anything else.’”

 

Related Topics:

Farage’s Political Earthquake Begins to Rattle Britain’s Foundations

Labours Blame Game Commences with Reform Results Fallout

 

  Adpated by ASEAN Now from The Times  2025-05-06

 

 

[Scottie12]

Getting rid of Miliband would be a step in the right direction.

[JonnyF]

9 hours ago, Social Media said:

Writing in The Times, she challenged Starmer’s refusal to consider raising income tax, VAT or national insurance, insisting that Labour’s “self-imposed tax rules” are preventing the bold investment necessary to rebuild public trust.

 

Is she totally mad? 😃

 

Yes Louise, after attacking freedom of speech, freezing the pensioners, introducing 2 tier justice, flooding the country with illegal immigrants, hiking national insurance for employers, putting VAT on private education and attempting to destroy the farming community, I'm sure a raise on income tax after promising not to will turn it all around for Labour. 😃 

[soalbundy]

Reform is only doing well because they are confronting illegal immigration, basically nothing else matters for most voters. Broken Britain will still be broken no matter who is in control, most of the pie has been eaten, the arguments are about who gets to eat the left overs.

[RayC]

Haigh is absolutely correct in her assessment. The idea that increases in funding for education, the NHS and social care, housing and improvements to local government finances and pensions could be funded solely by efficiency improvements and anaemic private sector growth inherited from the Tories was - and remains - pie in the sky.

 

The choice was stark. If the electorate wanted the improvements, then it would have to pay for them. The government should not have ruled out tax increases during the election campaign. It has made a rod for its' own back and has compounded its' problems by the introduction of unnecessary self-imposed fiscal rules.

 

To those who say that Labour would not have been elected on a platform of increasing taxes, I'd argue that Labour should have been more 'political'. They should not have explicitly stated that tax rises would be necessary but they should have left the option open. Dishonest? No. Devious? Certainly. But then Labour definitely don't have a monopoly on that attribute.

 

Imo Labour would have still been elected with a substantial majority such was the public's disillusionment with the Tories. Moreover, the LibDems/ SNP wouldn't have been able to make any political capital out of the situation since their policies would also have meant an increase in taxation. There may have been an increase in Reform's vote, but I doubt that it would have resulted in a large increase in the number of MPs. 

 

An increase in employee NI contributions and/or PIT last October would obviously have been very unpopular. However, the rise in employer NI was - quite correctly - seen as a tax rise and is unpopular so I'd question what has actually been achieved by Labour's play on words. Imo it would have been better to have got the pain out of the way immediately. It's difficult to imagine that this government would be much more unpopular if it had done so.

[BritManToo]

1 hour ago, soalbundy said:

Reform is only doing well because they are confronting illegal immigration, basically nothing else matters for most voters. Broken Britain will still be broken no matter who is in control, most of the pie has been eaten, the arguments are about who gets to eat the left overs.

Nah, no pensioner will ever vote for them again.

No point in them changing, we old folk will remember until we're dead.

That's 10-15 years until Labour will possibly win again.

So the 4 years they have, is all they'll get.

 

Their only chance of victory will be to flood the country with immigrants!

[sandyf]

1 hour ago, soalbundy said:

Broken Britain will still be broken no matter who is in control, most of the pie has been eaten, the arguments are about who gets to eat the left overs.

Indeed, Tories shot themselves in the foot, and now labour. Does the country have to wait until they all do  the same.

A national emegency should be declared, government stood down and an election called for a unity coalition government.