Kemi Badenoch throws down gauntlet to Keir Starmer and demands no stealth taxes on Brits
The Tory leader has written to the Prime Minister saying 'tax rises are a choice'.
She has challenged him to repeat Chancellor Rachel Reeves' promise at the Budget last year not to extend the freeze on income tax and National Insurance thresholds.
Failing to end the freeze as planned in 2028 would mean millions more Brits are forced into paying a higher rate of tax under fiscal drag.
This is when people are pulled into higher income tax brackets as inflation pushes their wages up.
It comes after a bombshell report said the Chancellor must find £50billion in her autumn Budget to keep the country's finances in check.
She will have to raise taxes or cut spending to maintain her stated financial cushion of £9.9billion by the end of the decade, according to the National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
At the Budget, Ms Reeves said: 'Extending the threshold freeze would hurt working people.
"It would take more money out of their payslips.
'I am keeping every single promise on tax that I made in our manifesto, so there will be no extension of the freeze in income tax and national insurance thresholds.'
Ms Badenoch asked the PM: 'I am writing to you to ask: does this remain government policy?'
Kemi Badenoch pleads for Tories to give her more time just like Margaret Thatcher was given
A Labour spokesperson said: 'We'll take no lectures from this failed Tory Party.
"They crashed the economy which sent bills and mortgages rocketing, and left a £22 billion blackhole.
'Kemi Badenoch's next letter should be an apology to hard-pressed households for the Conservatives' role in hammering their family finances.
'Labour is the only party focused on creating a fairer Britain.'
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