𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Rishi Sunak warned us all. Almost two years ago to the day, during a televised election leaders’ debate, the former Prime Minister predicted that like night follows day, Labour will clobber people with punishing tax hikes.

“It’s in their DNA. Your work, your car, your pension – Labour will tax it,” he said in the ITV clash with Sir Keir Starmer. Since becoming Chancellor, Rachel Reeves has hit taxpayers with a record £75billion of increases while the UK’s welfare bill has been allowed to balloon to an eye-watering £333 billion. Not that anyone needed reminding, but Labour’s obsession with hiking taxes to pay for benefits has now been totally exposed from within.

Pat McFadden, one of Starmer’s most loyal lieutenants, privately accused backbench MPs of only being interested in “who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others”.

His stark admission, made during extraordinary exchanges with Peter Mandelson, lifts the lid on Starmer’s government.

The revelations came during Labour’s winter fuel payments crisis and a growing backbench mutiny over the two-child benefit cap.

McFadden’s 11 words will haunt the party for the rest of this parliament and beyond.

They are the modern-day equivalent of Liam Byrne’s infamous “there is no money” note in 2010.

Both the Tories and Reform UK have already seized on this, knowing the political capital they can gain from it.

As for Sir Keir, it would appear – with Andy Burnham plotting a comeback – that with every new Mandelson scandal, there is no more time.