Keir Starmer refuses to rule out council tax HIKE in fiery PMQs after string of Budget raids
SIR Keir Starmer today refused to rule out clobbering English households with a fresh council tax hike.
At a fiery PMQs, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch demanded the PM rule out a town hall levy rise.
But despite pledging in 2023 to freeze caps in Labour’s first year of government, Sir Keir replied: “On the question of councils, she knows what the arrangements are.”
The opposition chief responded: “I think the House will have heard that the Prime Minister could neither confirm nor deny whether the cap on council tax was being raised.”
The Tories accused ministers of secretly plotting to raise council tax by a whopping £2.4 billion.
The move would see bills for an average band D property soar by £143.
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An update to the Local Government Finance Settlement, which outlines council tax caps, is expected around February next year.
At PMQs Ms Badenoch also slammed Sir Keir for not exempting care homes from the Budget employer’s national insurance raid.
She accused Labour of creating a “social care funding gap”.
The PM responded that an additional £600m for local authorities announced at the Budget would help plug any funding black holes.
Sir Keir said: “It is all very well this knockabout but not actually listening to what I said three minutes ago is a bit of a fundamental failure of the Leader of the Opposition.
“I just said £600 million.”