Labour behind Budget leak, Tories claim

Rachel Reeves’ shadow Treasury team “leaked” sensitive details of tax cuts in the Budget to the media, government sources have claimed.

It came after MPs raised concerns that plans to introduce a 2p cut to national insurance contributions appeared in the media in advance of the Budget earlier this month.

Senior government sources insisted the leaks did not come from Whitehall and suggested the details could have come from members of the shadow Chancellor’s team who had recently left the Treasury.

“The key with the leaks is to think about who it benefits – it wasn’t us,” a source said. “Two of Rachel Reeves’ team were until recently Treasury officials. It was not in our interest to have it all out there.”

The suggestion that Labour may have been actively briefing out Budget details represents a major ratcheting up of hostilities between the two parties in an election year.

Harriett Baldwin, the Conservative chair of the Treasury Select Committee, asked the Prime Minister at the Liaison Committee meeting whether he had launched a leak inquiry into how details of the national insurance contributions cut were briefed to the media.

In response, Rishi Sunak said: “I deplore these leaks, particularly around Budget measures. I suffered from them as chancellor myself.

“In general, leak inquiries are instituted when there is a leak of sensitive information. Obviously it has historically proved difficult to identify the culprits of those, but… it’s certainly not in the Government’s interest to have sensitive Budget measures leaked in advance.”

Mr Sunak and his Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, trumpeted the 2p cut in national insurance contributions which is due to kick in from 6 April, claiming it represents a saving of £900 a year for the average worker coming on top of January’s 2p cut in national insurance contributions.

The big Budget giveaway will cost the exchequer around £9bn a year, but Tory MPs have raised concerns that despite the large cost of the tax cut, it has failed to boost the party’s position in the polls.

Labour staunchly rejected the claims, branding the briefings as “ridiculous”.

A Labour spokesman said: “This is completely untrue and a claim that is about as credible as Jeremy Hunt saying he is cutting taxes.”