GB News host Eamonn Holmes has launched a blistering attack on Chancellor Rachel Reeves, accusing her of dishonesty over her tax policy.
In a furious rant, Holmes said: “They say that they plan to have more tax rises in the next five years. Now they realise, ‘blooming heck, we can’t do it’ so they ease it. It’s all lies.”
His comments come as the Chancellor faces mounting criticism over her recent Budget decisions, which included significant tax increases for businesses.
Yesterday, Reeves appeared at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) conference, where she said she would not implement any further tax rises.
Eamonn Holmes lauched a scathing attack on the Chancellor
GB News
Reeves made a firm commitment against another hike, stating: “I’m not coming back with more borrowing or more taxes.
“We’ve put our public finances back on a firm footing, and we’ve now set the budgets for public services for the duration of this Parliament.”
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Adding to Eamonn’s comments, co-host Isabel Webster said: “Well, The i [Newspaper] concluded, if they’re saying there’s no tax rises and businesses are saying that all of your measures mean there’s going to be no growth, what’s the answer? It’s cuts.
“They concluded that there’ll be austerity for 2026, which would be ironic.”
Political Commentator Alex Armstrong explained: “They will have to be cuts, because what happens when you lose the businesses is that all the millionaires leaves the country and the tax revenues go down, not up.
“You’ve got to have a sensible approach to this. We’ve seen that the pound has gone down by 7 per cent.”
Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered her Budget in October
PA
He added: “We’re seeing a poor, slow fallout from the Budget. The damage it’s going to do will mean that you can’t raise taxes because you’ll do even more damage.”
At the CBI conference, Reeves insisted that public services would need to “live within their means” between now and the next election, expected no earlier than 2028.
The Chancellor emphasised that she had “wiped the slate clean” to stabilise public finances and services.
Reeves’ maiden Budget included substantial tax increases totalling £40billion, with a significant £25billion hike in the employers’ rate of National Insurance.
Rachel Reeves was met with stoney silence at the CBI conference yesterday
Getty
Reeves has strongly defended her budget decisions as unavoidable.
“If I hadn’t made those difficult decisions, then we wouldn’t have been able to bring the stability back to the economy that is desperately needed,” she told the CBI conference.
The Chancellor insisted the £22billion “black hole” in public finances needed to be addressed.
“I faced a problem, and I faced into it, and we have now drawn a line under the fiction peddled by the previous government,” she stated.