Keir Starmer has repeated his promise to not increase taxes on working people, ahead of the Labour government's autumn budget. The prime minister adds the people he has "most in mind" are those who are "working hard and saving where they can" but have "the anxiety in the bottom of their stomach that should something happen to them or their family, they know they can't simply write a cheque to get themselves out of any future difficulty". Report by Brooksl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00We made that important promise to working people that we wouldn't be increasing tax
00:05on them, whether that's national insurance, whether that's income tax, or whether that's
00:10VAT. I said it repeatedly into the election, we will keep that promise. Notwithstanding
00:16that this is a difficult budget, because as you know, we audited the books, we found that
00:21the last government left £22 billion gap unaccounted for. I've taken the decision,
00:27the Chancellor's taken the decision, that rather than continue with that fiction, we're
00:31going to run towards the problem, we're going to fix it, we're going to deal with that black
00:35hole, but that makes it difficult. But having sort of cleaned this down and fixed the foundations,
00:41we will then set out in the budget how we rebuild our country, make sure people are
00:45genuinely better off, that our NHS is not just back on its feet but fit for the future,
00:50and that our public services are running properly. Well, a working person is someone who goes
00:55out and earns their living with an income usually paid in pay slips every month or whatever
01:01it may be. Now that's a wide definition. What may be more helpful I think for people watching
01:05this is to know what do I, the Prime Minister, who do I have in my mind's eye, if you like,
01:10when I make the decisions that I make, when the Chancellor makes the decisions that she
01:13makes. I have in my mind the sort of people that go out, earn their living, have maybe
01:19a bit of savings but not huge savings, and when things get a bit tough they can't simply
01:26get a chequebook out and sort of write their way out of the problems that they're facing.
01:30It's those people I have most in mind. Working hard, saving where they can, of course I think
01:35most people try to do that where they can, although it's difficult, but the sort of people
01:39that have the anxiety I suppose in the bottom of their stomach that should something happen
01:45to them or their family, they know they can't simply write a cheque to get themselves out
01:49of any future difficulty. They're the people I have most in mind.