Mervyn Allister King, the former Governor of the Bank of England urged Labour not to commit to ruling out hikes on national insurance, VAT and income tax an entire parliament.
Lord King said Labour should go back on their pledge not to raise tax, and say the promises were made in “the heat of an electoral battle”.
Lord King, when asked on Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme if Labour was unwise to stick with those general election promises on tax, said: “Very unwise. I think the previous government was irresponsible to cut national insurance contributions when that was only remotely feasible, given unrealistic projections for public spending.
“And I think the Opposition didn’t need to make a commitment not to reverse that. And honestly, I think that would be much better now just to say to people, this is where we are, be completely straight with people say, yeah, we made that pledge in the heat of an electoral battle, it was a mistake, we regret it, and we’re going to unwind that.
“We’re going to put national insurance contributions back to where they were, because without that, we won’t have the money to support the NHS and other public services.”
Lord King encouraged Reeves to not talk about “new fiscal rules” but instead to emphasise the benefits of the rules, and the “merits of the spending”, in terms of potential new hospitals and schools.
He added: “Keep it simple it concrete, and above all, keep it honest.”