Chancellor's income tax 'U-turn' – what the papers say

Income tax hike no longer expected to feature in Autumn Budget

Jen Frost
clock • 3 min read

A Friday series of reports suggesting that chancellor Rachel Reeves had pulled away from speculated income tax hikes drove a gilt yields spike late last week.

Here's what the papers had to say on this… ‘Better than expected economic forecasts' While the announcement gave gilt markets a wobble, the BBC reported that the decision not to raise income taxes followed "better-than-expected" economic forecasts, citing government sources. It noted that a proposal to increase income tax rates by 2p, alongside a 2p cut to National Insurance (NI), was submitted to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) earlier this month for costing. The initial FT report said to have scooped the move away from an income tax rise suggested that the gap in pub...

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