Conservative U-turn on top rate of income tax is “too late”, Reeves warns

The start of Tory conference was – understandably and unsurprisingly – met by angry demonstrators. As Conservative MPs entered Birmingham, a protest organised by the People’s Assembly Against Austerity attracted hundreds of people livid with Liz Truss’ government about the cost-of-living crisis and her choices on the economy. Mick Lynch addressed the crowd, describing the ‘mini-Budget’ as the “most profound statement a politician has made for the last 50 years”, telling protesters that the country is “in the middle of a class struggle”.

We saw attempts, during the protest, to paint the Tories as the victims in this class war – a war that has already inflicted untold harm on people across the country and that the government stepped up a notch in its mini-Budget. In a bizarre turn over the weekend, Michael Fabricant was forced to take to social media simply to dispel claims that he was assaulted on his way into the conference centre. After right-wing commentators reported that he had been violently pushed, the Tory MP clarified that he “was not pushed or shoved, nor did I fall over”. The incident smacks of the punch that never happened during the 2019 general election – when Laura Kuenssberg and Robert Peston were forced to apologise after wrongly reporting that a Tory staffer had been whacked by a protestor.

Kwasi Kwarteng announced this morning that – following Liz Truss’ painful round of interviews with regional radio stations last week and some pretty damning polling for the Tories – the government has “listened”, confirming a U-turn over plans to abolish the top rate of income tax for the highest earners. In a statement earlier today, the Chancellor said “we get it, and we have listened” as he said the government would not be axing the 45% rate for earnings over £150,000, claiming that the policy had become a “distraction from our overriding mission to tackle the challenges facing our country”.

Labour’s Rachel Reeves warned, however, that the reversal “comes too late for the families who will pay higher mortgages and higher prices for years to come”. She argued that “the Tories have destroyed their economic credibility and damaged trust in the British economy”, adding: “This is not over – it’s not just some distraction. The Tories need to reverse their whole economic, discredited trickle down strategy. Their kamikaze Budget needs reversing now. As the party of fiscal responsibility and social justice, it will come to the Labour Party to repair the damage this Tory government has done.” Sign up to LabourList’s morning email for everything Labour, every weekday morning.