Labour buries manifesto on party website ahead of Rachel Reeves’s Budget tax hikes

Links to the manifesto, meanwhile, were pushed right to the bottom of the website, political blog Guido Fawkes revealed.

The Chancellor has all but admitted Labour will ditch its manifesto pledge not to hike income tax on November 26.

Sir Keir Starmer’s landslide election win was built on a promise not to increase income tax, employees’ national insurance or VAT – but Ms Reeves looks set to break that pledge.

Earlier this week, the Chancellor said that sticking to the election promise not to increase taxes for working people could only be met with “deep cuts” to public investment, which could derail hopes of future economic growth.

“I will set out the choices in the Budget… It would, of course, be possible to stick with the manifesto commitments, but that would require things like deep cuts in capital spending,” the Chancellor said.

“The reason why our productivity and our growth has been so poor these last few years is because governments have always taken the easy option to cut investment in rail and road projects, in energy projects, in digital infrastructure.

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“And as a result, we’ve never managed to get our productivity back to where it was before the financial crisis.

“So we’ve always got choices to make, and what I promised during the election campaign was to bring stability back to our economy, and what I can promise now is I will always do what I think is right for our country,” the Chancellor continued.

“We’re still going through the process at the moment of preparing the Budget measures. So those final decisions haven’t been taken yet, but as I take those measures, I will do what I believe is right for our country, and sometimes that means not always making the easy decisions, but the decisions that I think are in our national interest,” Ms Reeves told BBC Radio 5 Live.

Senior political commentator Nigel Nelson has warned Ms Reeves her parliamentary party will be “furious” if she introduces higher income taxes.

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However, he said that an advantage of making the decision now is to ease taxes off Britons when the next election rolls around.

“So it may be worth taking all the political flack and it’ll be monumental,” Mr Nelson told GB News.

“So she would take that political flak now on the basis that she may be able to do something later.

“Everything depends really on economic growth that she would have to grow the economy between now and the election to be able to do anything right,” he said.

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Ms Reeves has also hinted she may be considering ending the two-child benefit cap, after saying she opposed children being “penalised” for being part of large families.

Amid calls for the two-child cap could be scrapped, the Chancellor said it was important not to let the “costs to our economy in allowing child poverty to go unchecked”.

“In the end, a child should not be penalised because their parents don’t have very much money. Now, in many cases you might have a mum and a dad who were both in work, but perhaps one of them has developed a chronic illness, perhaps one of them has passed away. There are plenty of reasons why people make decisions to have three, four children, but then find themselves in difficult times.

“You will also have things like adoption or foster caring. Lots and lots of different reasons why families change shape and size over time, and I don’t think that it’s right that a child is penalised because they are in a bigger family through no fault of their own.

“So, we will take action on child poverty. The last Labour Government proudly reduced child poverty and we will reduce child poverty as well,” the Chancellor said.