Sir Keir Starmer disagrees with shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves over definition of 'working people' - as Labour's top brass continued to face tax rise questions

Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves appeared to be at odds over their definition of 'working people' yesterday as they continued to face questions about tax rises.

The Labour leader on Tuesday defined the group as those who do not have the savings to get them through a crisis at home.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt immediately accused him of letting slip 'Labour's true plans to raise taxes across the board'.

But yesterday, Shadow Chancellor Ms Reeves said the definition of working people included both pensioners and savers. She said Sir Keir had been citing just 'one example'.

Labour's manifesto includes a pledge to 'not increase taxes on working people' but the party had not, until Sir Keir's radio interview, defined what that meant.

While the party has ruled out increasing income tax, National Insurance or VAT if it wins power, it has refused to rule out a number of other tax rises.

During an interview on LBC, Sir Keir was asked what he meant by working people.

'People who earn their living, rely on our [public] services and don't really have the ability to write a cheque when they get into trouble,' he replied.

Asked if Sir Keir meant that anyone with savings was not a working person, Ms Reeves told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'No, working people are people who get their income from going out to work every day, and also pensioners who have worked all their lives and are now in retirement, drawing down on their pensions.'

Pressed on whether that included those who had put money aside, she acknowledged that 'many working people do have savings'.

Asked who was excluded from Labour's definition of working people, she cited non-doms and private equity bosses to Sky News.

Sir Keir later backtracked, telling reporters yesterday that working people did have savings.

He insisted: 'I come within my own definition of a working person, which is earning my living, paying my taxes and knowing what it means to save money, and when you do save money, not wanting to use that money to get out of a cost-of-living crisis which is of the Government's making.'

Ms Reeves also faced questions about Labour's plans to raise NHS spending by less than former Tory chancellor George Osborne had during austerity.

Asked by the BBC how she could promise change when the health budget would increase by 1.1 per cent compared with 1.4 per cent under Mr Osborne, Ms Reeves said Labour's manifesto was focusing on growth. 

She also refused to rule out tax rises on pensions and capital gains, as well as reforms to inheritance tax.