Government minister refuses to rule out extending income tax threshold freeze

A senior minister has declined to rule out extending the freeze on income tax thresholds as speculation about possible tax increases in the Budget continued to mount.

Wes Streeting said he would not guess measures that the Chancellor might introduce in the Budget on October 30, but told broadcasters on Sunday morning that he had already agreed health spending with Rachel Reeves.

“If you’re asking me whether I would vote against anything in the Chancellor’s Budget? The answer is no, of course I’m not going to do that,” the Health Secretary told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on Sky News.

Mr Streeting went on to say: “What we’re not going to do is duck the difficult decisions, have Government by gimmick, short-term sticking plasters, because that is exactly how we ended up in this situation.”

He later told Sky News: “There are a whole load of choices that we will have to make that we would have preferred not to. But if we don’t make the choices now, we will end up paying a much heavier price for failure.

“We’re not prepared to do that. We’re going to make the right long term decisions.”

Mr Streeting said he had reached a deal on NHS funding with the Chancellor. He said: “I’m not going to get into specific figures.”

He also stressed the need for reform as well as investment in the NHS, saying he was “conscious” that money spent on health was money that could not be spent in other areas. The Labour MP for Ilford North said investment was much-needed across the board.

“There isn’t a single part of Government and the public sector where there aren’t real crises,” he said.

Liberal Democrat deputy leader and Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper said she would oppose the rumoured increase of national insurance contributions