What does the pledge mean?

In full, the headline pledge on tax in Labour’s 2024 election manifesto reads: “Labour will not increase taxes on working people, which is why we will not increase National Insurance, the basic, higher, or additional rates of Income Tax, or VAT.”

Exactly how this pledge should be interpreted has been the subject of much debate. There’s a lot to unpick, so our Government Tracker is monitoring progress on the different elements of this pledge separately. Here we look at the overall commitment to “not increase taxes on working people”—we’re also monitoring the commitments on National Insurance, income tax and VAT.

Labour’s manifesto did not specify what exactly it meant by the phrase “working people”. Even before the election, the party failed to offer a clear and comprehensive definition of what it meant by the term, and this became even more of an issue in the run-up to and aftermath of Labour’s first Budget.

Various senior Labour politicians have offered definitions of what the manifesto meant by “working people”.

During the election campaign, Rachel Reeves (now Chancellor of the Exchequer) said working people “are people who get their income from going out to work everyday, and also pensioners that have worked all their lives and are now in retirement, drawing down on their pensions”.

Shortly before the Autumn Budget 2024 Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he defined a “working person” as someone who “goes out and earns their living, usually paid in a sort of monthly cheque” and who can’t “write a cheque to get out of difficulties”. He also said someone whose income came primarily from assets would not meet his definition, but that some with a small amount in savings or stocks and shares would not be excluded.

Other government ministers have said Labour’s pledge meant it would not increase taxes seen in people’s payslips. The Treasury also referred to not increasing taxes in people’s payslips when we asked for its definition of “working people” in November 2024.

The manifesto’s failure to define what is clearly an ambiguous term isn’t good enough—as we’ve written elsewhere, commitments that are subject to interpretation are at best a recipe for confusion, and risk fuelling cynicism among voters. As we set out in our manifesto standards ahead of the election, manifestos should define things clearly and consistently and be phrased in a way that a reasonable person is likely to understand.

While exactly who this pledge was originally intended to refer to is unclear, there seems to be a clear timescale implied. We’ve assumed it commits the government to not increasing taxes on working people until the next election.

What progress has been made?

As a result of changes announced by the government in the 2025 Budget, we’re now rating this pledge as ‘Not kept’.

If we were to assume a very literal definition of the phrase “working people”, then the government would have clearly failed to meet its pledge in quite a few different ways, as it has increased a number of different taxes which may affect people who work—for example, a rise in the rate at which Capital Gains Tax is charged could mean some people who work, but also make money from selling assets, pay more.

However, even accepting the government’s framing of the commitment as applying only to taxes in people’s payslips, this pledge no longer seems to have been kept—though the government continues to insist it has kept “every single one” of its manifesto commitments.

At the 2025 Budget the government announced that income tax and National Insurance thresholds, which were frozen under the previous government until April 2028, will remain frozen for a further three years, until April 2031.

The Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts that this will result in 780,000 more basic-rate, 920,000 more higher-rate and 4,000 more additional-rate taxpayers by 2029/30 than previously expected.

Clearly, then, this change means that from April 2028 people will pay more income tax and National Insurance contributions in their payslips than they otherwise would have.

And while the government has said it believes it has honoured its manifesto commitments, it has at the same time acknowledged that “working people” will pay more.

In an interview following the 2025 Budget, Ms Reeves said: "I do recognise that yesterday I have asked working people to contribute a bit more by freezing those thresholds for a further three years from 2028.

"I do recognise that that will mean that working people pay a bit more.”

It’s worth noting that these changes will only impact people from April 2028. We’ll re-assess our verdict if the government reverses its decision before then.