Jeremy Hunt has challenged Rachel Reeves to set out how Labour will stop tens of millions of individuals from being dragged into larger tax charges.

The Chancellor, who has himself confronted questions over “fiscal drag”, claimed “all we’ve actually seen is plans to spend more”.

Ms Reeves had mentioned shopper champion Martin Lewis is “right” that cuts to nationwide insurance coverage are being worn out by frozen tax thresholds.

But Mr Hunt warned Labour: “If you want to criticise the freezing of tax thresholds, where is your plan to unfreeze them? As ever with Labour, all we've actually seen is plans to spend more (£28 billion a year more) not tax less. In other words, taxes going UP not down. Happy New Year!”

Almost six and a half million voters shall be paying the 40 per cent tax fee by the following election, knowledge from the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) confirmed.

This is an increase of greater than 60 per cent in 5 years.

Ms Reeves additionally mentioned "the Conservatives have raised taxes on working individuals to their highest stage since WWII."

But Mr Hunt has hinted that extra tax cuts might be on the best way within the spring, saying lower-taxed economies had been extra “dynamic”.

Speaking to The Rest Is Money podcast, hosted by Robert Peston and Steph McGovern, the Chancellor mentioned: “If you look over the last decade… the advanced economies that have grown the fastest have been the ones with lower taxes, not higher taxes.

"In that period when I wasn't making a profit, the taxes that bothered me the most were the taxes you have to pay even before you've made a penny of profit.

“So for example, business rates, employers' National Insurance contributions, these are really expensive taxes that you have to pay right up front. So if you can bring those taxes down, you reduce the number of businesses that go bust, you make it easier for businesses to get off the ground."

He added: “As a Conservative I really do believe that lower taxed economies are more dynamic, more entrepreneurial, more energetic. And that's how we get competitive."

The Chancellor, who will deliver a spring Budget in March, told the Martin Lewis Money Show Live on Tuesday evening that taxes will not return to pre-pandemic levels in “one go”. However, Mr Hunt didn't give any timetable for when additional cuts may happen.

“After a period in which taxes have gone up in order to pay for the costs of the pandemic or the £3,500 of help we gave people in the cost of living crisis to a typical family, we now want to bring that tax burden back down,” Mr Hunt advised the presenter.

“Now we can’t get all the way back to where we were pre-pandemic in one go, but we can make a start. And this is about £1,000, just under £1,000 for a typical two-earner family. But we would like to go further as and when it’s affordable and responsible to do so.”

It comes after a two share level lower in nationwide insurance coverage, from 12% to 10%, took impact final Saturday.

Several economists have pointed to the truth that regardless of the nationwide insurance coverage lower, many households are nonetheless going through the burden of excessive taxes.

Some Tory MPs are lobbying the Chancellor to push forward with tax cuts in a bid to woo voters.