A Tory minister was urged to “just be straight with people” after she claimed the government was cutting the overall tax burden.
Laura Trott was grilled on BBC 1′s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg this morning.
The chief secretary to the Treasury repeated Conservative claims that her party is reducing the amount people are being taxed - despite clear evidence to the contrary.
At last week’s Autumn Statement, chancellor Jeremy Hunt said he was bringing in “the biggest package of tax cuts since the 1980s” as he reduced National Insurance and business taxes.
But it later emerged that the overall tax burden is still set to hit a post-war high by the end of the 2020s.
Kuenssberg told Trott: “It’s very important that you are clear about the overall picture here.
″The overall picture for our viewers is that the tax burden is going up and up and up and up.”
But the minister said: “That’s actually not true. For people on average wages, their taxes would have been cut by about £1,000 on average since 2010.
“For some of the highest earners, we have asked them to take on more of the burden.”
Kuenssberg replied: “You know, and our viewers will have seen and heard on many occasions, taxes are going to reach a post-war high.
“The overall tax burden is going up. Shouldn’t you just be straight with people?”
Trott said: “I am being straight. If you are on an average income, because of the tax changes that we’ve made, your tax burden will have gone down quite significantly.”
Kuenssberg hit back: “You are going to bring some taxes down, but the overall tax burden is going up - I want people to understand that clearly.”