Keir Starmer says he will reverse tax cut for top earners if he wins next election

Labour will reverse the cut in the higher rate of income tax if it wins power at the next election, Sir Keir Starmer has said.

The Treasury has acknowledged that around 660,000 of the highest earners on more than £150,000 will benefit from the scrapping of the 45p rate, getting back on average £10,000 a year.

Asked if Labour would reintroduce the 45% rate, Sir Keir told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme “Yes”.

He said: “I do not think that the choice to have tax cuts for those that are earning hundreds of thousands of pounds is the right choice when our economy is struggling the way it is, working people are struggling in the way they are… that is the wrong choice.

“I would reverse the decision that they made on Friday.”

However, he said he supports the government cutting the basic rate to 19p.

“I’ve long made the argument that we should reduce the tax burden on working people,” he said.

“That’s why we opposed the national insurance increase earlier this year, which of course the government is now reversing.”

The measures were announced in Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget on Friday.

Labour had faced pressure to say if it would reverse the cuts after tearing into the policy announcement, with shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves calling Mr Kwarteng’s growth plan “an admission of 12 years of economic failure” under successive Conservative governments.

Speaking to Sophy Ridge on Sky News earlier this morning, Ed Miliband, the shadow secretary for climate change, said Labour would be “consistent in our election manifesto with our opposition to the 45p tax cut”.

He said: “Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves set out tax policy and Keir will be saying more about this quite shortly.

“We think it’s the wrong thing to do for the country.”