The rumoured rise in national insurance on employers makes sense. As for claims Labour promised not to do that: it didn’t

As the budget approaches, expect more balderdash and hogwash from Labour’s enemies and their foghorn media. Listen to them protest that raising employers’ national insurance would betray the manifesto, making Labour’s pre-election pledge not to put up taxes on working people a blatant lie. But was it?

Labour never said where new taxes would fall, only where they wouldn’t. The manifesto said: “Labour will not increase taxes on working people, which is why we will not increase national insurance, the basic, higher, or additional rates of income tax, or VAT.”

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist