Copy article

Newsquest request – Reeves to not raise income tax and NI in Budget

ended 25. November 2025

Newsquest are prepping Budget stories.

They want expert comment on the expected outcome that Rachel Reeves does NOT raise income tax and National Insurance.

If this does happen, they will be using comments.

So please comment from the perspective that Reeves has not raised income tax and NI.

  • Is this a win for your average worker/citizen?
  • Can the UK afford it? Is raising taxes the easiest and most fair way?
  • What other reactions do you have to Labour keeping their promise to not raise tax?

Responses by midday.

3 responses from the Newspage community

Copy all

Copy

Editor
Tony RedondoVerified
Founder at Cosmos Currency Exchange
Keeping income tax and NI unchanged provides immediate relief to take-home pay during the cost-of-living squeeze, but if we're not raising these taxes but still need revenue, the money must come from somewhere—stealth taxes through frozen thresholds, higher VAT, or service cuts. Since 1997, the UK public sector has expanded from 37.5% to around 45% of the economy. The tax burden is at its highest since the late 1940s. Rather than endless arguments about spending allocation and subjective notions of 'fairness', the UK needs fiscal discipline. We must incentivise the working-age population to return to work, build businesses, and employ people—economic growth will expand the wealth-creating private sector. There's political value in keeping your word when trust in politics is fragile, but by taking income tax and NI off the table, we're avoiding an honest conversation about the tax burden needed to fund the country people say they want.
Copy

Editor
Pete MuglestonVerified
Mortgage Advisor & Managing Director at onlinemortgageadvisor.co.uk
Labour has already taken heat this year for raising employer NI, which many saw as a broken manifesto promise. This time around, Reeves has avoided touching income tax and NI by assembling a patchwork of alternative revenue-raising measures to plug the fiscal hole created by weak growth and rising unemployment.

The financial markets will worry about the unpredictability of these smaller, behaviour-driven taxes. When you rely on measures that change how people buy, sell or invest, the revenue is far less stable. If Labour cannot steer the UK out of its productivity slump, Reeves may be forced back to the despatch box year after year searching for new tax tweaks until voters eventually lose patience.

A credible growth plan and serious action on public sector efficiency would provide far more stability than shuffling the tax burden around the edges.
Copy

Colette MasonVerified
AI Ethics Consultant at Clever Clogs AI
The freeze on income tax and NI felt like a win for low paid workers, but only on the surface. Fiscal drag was still doing the real work. It was belt tightening by stealth, not public-spirited generosity.

Could the UK afford it? Not without growth. The hotch potch of new measures simply adds more complexity and another puzzle for loophole seekers to solve. Labour had already run out of road on squeezing low earners and 'mom-n-pop' businesses. Raising taxes is the easiest lever, but it is blunt, slow and increasingly unfair when wages stagnate and productivity flatlines.

The only sustainable route was growth: fixing the UK’s chronic productivity problem, modernising creaking public systems and backing, not burgling, SME bank balances.

Workers need an economy that grows again, with productive humans supported by world beating AI for human centred collaboration, not replaced by it just because a corporate office copilot conveniently dodges income tax and NICS.