Mark Harper repeated Rishi Sunak’s claim that Labour will hike household taxes by £2,000 if they win the general election during an appearance on Question Time on Thursday, 6 June. During the first televised debate of the campaign, the prime minster said analysis by Treasury civil servants showed a £38.5bn black hole in Sir Keir Starmer’s spending plans that would lead to each working household paying £2,094 more in tax. Treasury permanent secretary James Bowler said “civil servants were not involved in the production or presentation of the Conservative party’s document ‘Labour’s Tax Rises’ or in the calculation of the total figure used”.