‘We had to fill a black hole!’ 9 times Rachel Reeves defends Budget tax hikes & refuses to rule out MORE

RACHEL Reeves tonight defended hiking taxes NINE times – before refusing to rule out more pain for Brits.

In our exclusive chat, the Chancellor also insisted she hadn’t broken Labour’s election pledge not to raise National Insurance – warning she would’ve had to hit drivers otherwise.

During her grilling by Political Editor Harry Cole, Ms Reeves insisted the £40bn tax blitz was the right course of action to “fill the black hole”.

In her first interview after delivering the Budget, Ms Reeves told Never Mind the Ballots she was only just getting going.

She refused to rule out even more tax pain in future, insisting she wanted to go “further and faster” to fix economic growth.

The “trick and treat” Halloween package included:

• A freeze to fuel duty for a 15th consecutive year in a win for The Sun’s Keep It Down campaign
• A penny off a pint by cutting draught beer duty, but raising booze taxes on other drinks
• A gloomy forecast of sluggish growth in a blow to Labour’s flagship mission
• A stamp duty rise for second-home buyers of two percentage points
• A pay rise for millions as the minimum wage was increased by £1,400 a year
• A hike to a packet of cigarettes as smoking duties were raised
• A new tax on vapes ahead of the looming ban on disposable e-cigs
• Higher taxes on air passenger duty for private jets that hits the wealthy
• A benefits crackdown with Ms Reeves telling jobless Brits to “get back to work”
• An increase to the state pension of £473 next year through the triple lock
• An inheritance tax raid through freezing the rates people pay
• An increase to the Carer’s Allowance to give cash to 60,000 more carers

Mr Cole quizzed the Chancellor over the “bleak” budget – to which she insisted she had “taken the right decision”.

He then pressed her further on the tax burden – but again she doubled down on her decision to “tax Brits by the back door”.

Later in our chat, Mr Cole quizzed her over National Insurance and said the Treasury could’ve been clearer in its definition of “working people” in the lead-up to the Budget.

But again, Ms Reeves insisted she had not broken the manifesto pledge and had made “the right choice to make businesses pay more”.

Met with disappointing growth forecasts at her first set piece, the Chancellor insisted she needed more time to turn things around, saying: “This is my first Budget, and hopefully we will have a few more before the next election.

“Is this the summit of my ambition on growth? Absolutely not, I want to go further and faster.”

And countering a major backlash on a £25billion NICs raid on businesses, Ms Reeves said she understood the concerns but was boxed in.

But Ms Reeves said she is not immune to the “criticism” and the “worries” about the controversial increase.

She insisted it was “the right choice to ask businesses, rather than working people” given the “circumstances” she faced.

Pressed on the fact it will be a “tax by the backdoor”, she replied: “You could do what the Tories did and introduce stealth taxes on working people. I could have increased fuel duty.”

But critics say the hike on employers’ National Insurance contributions will be passed onto workers, with wages hit and possible layoffs.

And after hiking taxes on fags, booze, vapes, holidays and fizzy drinks, she batted away claims that she is “the fun police”.

Instead she said: “We got the right balance today in supporting ordinary working families who pay the majority of their tax in income tax, National Insurance and VAT. We did not pick the pockets, unlike the Tories, of working people.”

She added: “We had a choice today. We could have just gone for the taxes that working people pay.

“We could have frozen the thresholds for income tax and National Insurance.

“That would have dragged more people into paying tax. Would have dragged more pensioners into paying tax.

“That was not a choice that I wanted to make.”

On fuel duty, the Chancellor praised The Sun’s Keep It Down campaign, which has pressured ministers to freeze rates since 2011.

Ms Reeves used today’s Budget to stop petrol and diesel prices rising with inflation.

And in a huge boost for cash-strapped Brits, she also confirmed the temporary 5p cut will remain in place.

She said: “You’ve been running a campaign for a long time to freeze the fuel duty, and that’s a cost of £3 billion.

“But it was the right decision, given the cost of living crisis is still affecting families, to freeze fuel duty for a further year. So there will be no higher taxes at the petrol pumps next year.”

The Chancellor also defended hiking NHS spending before any reforms had been secured.

She said: “Wes Streeting, when he became Health Secretary, was presented with his department by the numbers that said.

“You’re going to have to cut activity in the NHS because the money isn’t there to continue.

“We have made a pledge in our election, in our manifesto, to increase the number of appointments by 40,000 a week.

“We had to put money in to be able to deliver on that promise.

“Already the NHS have committed to 2% productivity and efficiency reforms this year and next.

“That is to help ensure that the money can go where it’s needed on the frontline.”

She added: “We have got to update the technology, the machinery, the equipment we’re using in our NHS.

“Which is why, as well as funding more appointments, we are also investing in that capital equipment to make our health service more productive and more efficient.”