With days to go until the Budget, Labour’s interpretation of working people is under the spotlight as the party’s election manifesto said that these taxpayers would be protected from tax rises.

Sir Keir Starmer has reiterated his ‘absolute commitment’ that income tax, national insurance and VAT will not go up for ‘working people’.

When pressed about his exact definition of the term at the Commonwealth Summit in Samoa, the PM told Sky News that a working person was someone who ‘goes out and earns their living, and is usually paid in a sort of monthly cheque but that is obviously very broad… what I mean is the sorts of working people that go out, work hard and maybe save a bit of money, but don’t have the wherewithal to write a cheque if they or their families get into difficulties’.

Sir K