Government ready to raise tax post-Brexit

Chancellor George Osborne and Labour’s former Chancellor Alistair Darling said the leadership could not shy away from a reassesment of the country’s finances if Britain were to leave the EU, and may need to introduce a tax hike to bring in £15bn to the Treasury.

This could include a five per cent increase in alcohol and petrol duty and an income tax rise - which would go against the Conservative manifesto promise to cut income tax for 30m people.

The campaign to remain in the UK, Stronger In, said the figures used to justify a second budget in 2016 were backed by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Mr Osborne will say today: “As Chancellor, I would have a responsibility to try to restore stability to the public finances and that would mean an emergency budget where we would have to increase taxes and cut spending.”

The £15bn in tax rises would comprise of a two pence rise in the basic rate of income tax to 22 percent, a three pence rise in the higher rate to 43 percent, and a five pence rise in inheritance tax rates to 45p.

Labour has spent the past two days trying to convince its voters to back Remain and in Central London gathered the shadow cabinet to explain how the NHS would be financially crippled by Brexit.

The British Medical Journal said the case for Britain staying in the EU from a health perspective is “overwhelming”.