Former Government Special Advisor James Price has blasted the Chancellor’s plan to overhaul spending, branding it “jiggery pokery.”
Rachel Reeves has announced plans to overhaul spending and debt rules ahead of her first Budget next week.
Price questioned Labour’s definition of “working people” and warned that taxes would increase under a Labour Government.
Speaking to GB News, he said: “How do you know a politician is lying? Their lips are moving.
James Price criticised the plans,
GB News
“That expression has never felt more true with some of this. I mean, this idea that if you work really hard and you earn more than six figures, you’re not a working person.
“That’s another definition that Labour has given in recent days. And that might sound like an awful lot of money, £100,000 a year to to some people, that’s about $150,000 a year less than a bloke running a large petrol station will earn in Texas these days, right?
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“To put into context how much richer we could and should be if we had the same kind of policies, same kind of economy as some American states or actually any American state.
“Even Mississippi, the poorest state in America, is richer than we are in the UK.
“We’re not going to be fixing that, fixing people, getting wealthier, which means more money for schools, for hospitals, for people to just live on and enjoy with the kinds of accountancy, let’s call it jiggery-pokery, let’s not call it lies that Labour is going on some of this.
Rachel Reeves will deliver the Budget on October 30 PA
“You can’t just suddenly, with a stroke of a pen, change the fundamentals of what the British economy looks like.
He added: “You can’t just suddenly say all this debt that students are owed, Rachel Reeves is going to redefine that money that the students owed to the Government as actually, that’s an asset, because I can call that in one day.
“That’s an asset instead. Therefore I can borrow loads more. But most people don’t pay it back.
“So all this kind of jiggery-pokery around here, and that’s just on the accountancy rules itself, let alone the definition of working people.”
He claimed “your taxes are going to go up under Keir Starmer”
GB News
“I think the Prime Minister has said that if you own shares, you don’t count as a working person, even if you work.
“Your taxes are going to go up under Keir Starmer. I mean it’s absolutely extraordinary. And I don’t think the market is going to buy it one bit.”
Reeves outlined her plans to change how government debt is measured, taking into account a wider range of state assets and liabilities.
This approach aims to create space for increased investment in the economy.