Rachel Reeves confirms huge tax hikes on wealthy in Budget

Rachel Reeves has confirmed she will hit the wealthy with tax hikes in her upcoming Budget. The Chancellor said that higher taxes for the most well-off "will be part of the story".

It comes as Ms Reeves is preparing for her November 26 statement amid warnings of a black hole in the public finances of up to £50 million. Speaking as she attended the International Monetary Fund (IMF) meeting in Washington, Ms Reeves told the Guardian: "Last year, when we announced things like the non-doms, like the private equity, like the VAT on private school fees, there was so much bleating that it wasn't going to raise the money - that people would leave.

"The OBR will publish updated numbers on all of those things. And that scaremongering didn't pay off, because this is a brilliant country and people want to live here.

"And I think, when people scaremonger again this year, we should take some of that with a pinch of salt."

Ms Reeves has previously ruled out imposing a wealth tax, which critics say would cause rich individuals to flee the UK.

It comes after the Chancellor admitted earlier today that she was looking at potential tax rises and spending cuts.

She sought to blame Brexit as she said the economy was still suffering from the impacts of leaving the European Union, austerity policies and Liz Truss's mini-budget.

She said the budget watchdog had carried out a review over the summer and found "they have consistently overestimated our productivity performance".

It was up to them to set out the reasons, she said, but "austerity, Brexit, and the ongoing impact of Liz Truss's mini-budget, all of those things have weighed heavily on the UK economy".