Labour has called on Rishi Sunak to reverse the government’s planned 2.5 per cent hike in National Insurance contributions in his March budget.
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said that Labour would not go ahead with the rise - made up of 1.25 per cent each on employers’ and employees’ payments.
And she said that Mr Sunak still has time to halt the controversial rise before it comes into effect in April.
Conservative MPs are piling increasing pressure on the chancellor to rethink the tax rise, intended to fund improvements to the social care system as well as helping the NHS deal with the backlog of cases which has built up during the Covid pandemic.
Leader of the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg broke ranks at last week’s cabinet to call for the rise to be halted.
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UK news in pictures 7 January 2022 A dog looks out of a car window at the wintry conditions in Killeshin, Co. Laois
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UK news in pictures 3 January 2022 Dean Morrison, 13, receives his Covid-19 vaccine from student nurse Anthony McLaughlin during a vaccination clinic at the Glasgow Central Mosque
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UK news in pictures 2 January 2022 Konastantinos Tsimikas of Liverpool with Chelsea’s Mason Mount during the Premier League match at Stamfrod Bridge
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UK news in pictures 30 December 2021 Sunrise at Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland
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UK news in pictures 29 December 2021 The Very Revd Dr Robert Willis, Dean of Canterbury Cathedral, looks at Becket, a six month old red-billed chough as he visits Wildwood Wildlife Park in Kent on the anniversary of the murder of Thomas Becket
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UK news in pictures 28 December 2021 Troops of the Household Cavalry are seen reflected in a puddle during the changing of the Queen’s Life Guard, on Horse Guards Parade, in central London
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UK news in pictures 27 December 2021 A pedestrian walks past a winter sale sign outside a John Lewis store on Oxford street in London
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UK news in pictures 25 December 2021 Patrick Corkery wears a santa hat and beard as waves crash over him at Forty Foot near Dublin during a Christmas Day dip
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UK news in pictures 24 December 2021 People stand inside Kings Cross Station on Christmas Eve in London
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UK news in pictures 23 December 2021 Christmas shoppers fill the car park at Fosse Shopping Park in Leicester
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UK news in pictures 22 December 2021 The sun rises behind the stones as people gather for the winter solstice at Stonehenge.
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UK news in pictures 21 December 2021 People take part in a winter solstice swim at Portobello Beach in Edinburgh to mark the solstice and to witness the dawn after the longest night of the year
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UK news in pictures 19 December 2021 Joao Moutinho of Wolverhampton Wanderers looks on during the Premier League match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Chelsea at Molineux
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UK news in pictures 18 December 2021 Freight lorries queuing at the port of Dover in Kent
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UK news in pictures 14 December 2021 The Royal Liver Buildings surrounded by early morning fog in Liverpool
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UK news in pictures 13 December 2021 People queue outside a walk-in Covid-19 vaccination centre at St Thomas's Hospital in Westminster
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UK news in pictures 8 December 2021 Margaret Keenan and Nurse May Parsons, a year after Margaret was the first person in the UK to receive the Pfizer vaccine
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UK news in pictures 4 December 2021 People walk through a Christmas market in Trafalgar Square
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UK news in pictures 3 December 2021 A pedestrian carries a dog as they dodge shoppers on Oxford Street in central London
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UK news in pictures 30 November 2021 Workers put the finishing touches to the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree ahead of the lighting ceremony later in the week
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UK news in pictures 29 November 2021 Home Secretary Priti Patel is greeted by a police dog at a special memorial service for Met Police Sergeant Matiu Ratana
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UK news in pictures 3 December 2021 A pedestrian carries a dog as they dodge shoppers on Oxford Street in central London
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UK news in pictures 24 November 2021 Migrants are helped ashore from a RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) lifeboat at a beach in Dungeness, on the south-east coast of England, on November 24, 2021, after being rescued while crossing the English Channel.
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UK news in pictures 23 November 2021 The coffin of Sir David Amess is carried past politicians, including former Prime Ministers Sir John Major, David Cameron and Theresa May, Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Home Secretary Priti Patel and Prime Minister Boris Johnson during the requiem mass for the MP at Westminster Cathedral, central London
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UK news in pictures 22 November 2021 The scene in Dragon Rise, Norton Fitzwarren, Somerset where police have launched a murder probe after two people were found dead
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UK news in pictures 21 November 2021 London-based midwife Sarah Muggleton, 27, takes part in a 'March with Midwives' in central London to highlight the crisis in maternity services
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Ms Reeves said it appeared Mr Sunak would have to be “dragged kicking and screaming” into dropping the ￡12bn hike, which will raise the overall tax take to its highest sustained level since the 1950s at a time of a cost-of-living crisis.
Challenged over whether Labour would reverse the rise, Ms Reeves told BBC1’s Sunday Morning: “If we were in government, we would not be going ahead with it now.
“They still have time to act. The government can do the right thing.
“There is another fiscal statement from the chancellor set for 23 March, just over a week before this tax increase is due to come in.
“I want the government, I want the chancellor to rethink. The chancellor has to be dragged kicking and screaming to every announcement he makes.
“You’ve now got a chorus of Conservative MPs as well as the Labour Party saying ‘Do the right thing, think again on National Insurance’.
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“This double whammy of a National Insurance hike at the same time that gas and electricity bills are going to be going through the rood is just a catastrophe that families and pensioners cannot afford.”