Starmer Must Raise Taxes To Fend Off 'Existential' Farage Threat, Ex-Cabinet Minister Warns

Keir Starmer must raise taxes to fight off the “existential” threat posed by Nigel Farage, a former cabinet minister has warned.

Writing for The Times after Labour’s disappointing performance in the local elections, Louise Haigh urged the prime minister to “rip up” the party’s “self-imposed tax rules” which prevents the Treasury from raising income tax, VAT or national insurance for employees.

Haigh was forced to stepped down as transport secretary last year after it was revealed that she had an undisclosed 2013 fraud conviction, but remains an influential Labour MP.

She said the government needs “serious programme of investment and reindustrialisation” needed to prove to voters that the government was fighting on their side”.

Her remarks follow Reform UK’s surprise victory over Labour in the Runcorn and Helsby by-election.

Nigel Farage’s party also won 677 seats in councils across England last Thursday, while Labour lost 187 – results Haigh described as “existential for the current course”.

So Haigh urged the prime minister to address the “existential” threat posed by the rise of the right-wing party by dropping “unpopular policies”.

“It is now urgent that we develop a vision and a strategy that is confident in our values, sets the terms of the debate and takes the fight to Reform, rather than letting the fight come to us. That is the only way to hold our perilous coalition together,” she said.

“I believe the only way to achieve that is through an economic reset, through ripping up our self-imposed tax rules and by a serious programme of investment and reindustrialisation. Because Nigel Farage is not wooing these voters with a traditionally right-wing offer.”

She said: “Voters are desperate for change and they’ve sensed from us that we’re not capable or interested in delivering it.

“For my brilliant former cabinet colleagues, it will be just as frustrating as the unpopular policies are drowning out any good they’re achieving.”

Responding to Haigh’s suggestions on LBC, veterans minister Alistair Cairns said: “We’ve been in government for nine months. We had a manifesto commitment, we’ve come into government, we’ve started to deliver.

“We’ve seen NHS waiting lists reduced, we’ve seen free breakfast school clubs out, we’ve seen biggest defence spending since the Cold War, 2.5% with 3% into the next parliament. That is the biggest commitment any country can make to its population because it’s ensuring we are protecting them and keeping them safe.”

He said the government would go “further and faster” on its commitment to deliver.