On Wednesday the chancellor broke those pledges as she lifted taxes by another £26bn, adding to the £40bn rise in her first budget.
She told working people a year ago she would not extend freezing tax thresholds - a Conservative policy - because it would "hurt working people".
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On Wednesday she ripped up that pledge, as she extended the threshold freeze for three years, dragging 800,000 workers into tax and another million into the higher tax band to raise £8.3bn.
Rachel Reeves said it was a Labour budget and she's right.
In the first 17 months of this government, Labour have raised tens of billions in taxes, while reversing on welfare reform - the U-turn on the winter fuel allowance and disability benefits has cost £6.6bn.
Ms Reeves even lifted the two-child benefit cap on Wednesday, at a cost of £3bn, despite the prime minister making a point of not putting that pledge in the manifesto as part of the "hard choices" this government would make to try to bear down on the tax burden for ordinary people. The OBR predicts one in four people would be caught by the 40% higher rate of tax by the end of this parliament.
Those higher taxes were necessary for two reasons and aimed at two audiences - the markets and the Labour Party.
For the former, the tax rises help the chancellor meet her fiscal rules, which requires the day-to-day spending budget to be in a surplus by 2029-30.
Before this budget, her headroom was just £9.9bn, which made her vulnerable to external shocks, rises in the cost of borrowing or lower tax takes. Now she has built her buffer to £22bn, which has pleased the markets and should mean investors begin to charge Britain less to borrow.
As for the latter, this was also the chancellor raising taxes to pay for spending and it pleased her backbenchers - when I saw some on the PM's team going into Downing Street in the early evening, they looked pretty pleased.
I can see why: amid all the talk of leadership challenge, this was a budget that helped buy some time.
"This is a budget for self-preservation, not for the country," remarked one cabinet minister to me this week.
You can see why: ducking welfare reform, lifting the two-child benefit cap - these are decisions a year-and-a-half into government that Downing Street has been forced into by a mutinous bunch of MPs.
With a majority of 400 MPs, you might expect the PM and his chancellor to take the tough decisions and be on the front foot. Instead they find themselves just trying to survive, preserve their administration and try to lead from a defensive crouch.
When I asked the chancellor about breaking manifesto promises to raise taxes on working people, she argued the pledge explicitly involved rates of income tax (despite her pledge not to extend the threshold freeze in the last budget because it "hurt working people").
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Trying to argue it is not a technical breach - the Institute of Fiscal Studies disagreed - rather than taking it on and explaining those decisions to the country says a lot about the mindset of this administration.
One of the main questions that struck me reflecting on this budget is accountability to the voters.
Labour in opposition, and then in government, didn't tell anyone they might do this, and actually went further than that - explicitly saying they wouldn't. They were asked, again and again during the election, for tax honesty. The prime minister told me that he'd fund public spending through growth and had "no plans" to raise taxes on working people.
Those people have been let down. Labour voters are predominantly middle earners and higher earning, educated middle classes - and it is these people who are the ones who will be hit by these tax rises that have been driven to pay for welfare spending rather than that much mooted black hole (tax receipts were much better than expected).
This budget is also back-loaded - a spend-now-pay-later budget, as the IFS put it, with tax rises coming a year before the election. Perhaps Rachel Reeves is hoping again something might turn up - her downgraded growth forecasts suggests it won't.
This budget does probably buy the prime minister and his chancellor more time. But as for credibility, that might not be recoverable. This administration was meant to change the country. Many will be looking at the tax rises and thinking it's the same old Labour.
Hong Kong leader John Lee said another 279 people were reported missing, while 45 are in a critical condition.
About 900 people have been evacuated to temporary shelters after the blaze - Hong Kong's deadliest fire in years - broke out at the Wang Fuk Court housing complex in the city's Tai Po district.
Three men have since been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter, broadcaster RTHK reported.
Meanwhile, fire chiefs said the high temperatures were making it challenging for crews to mount rescue operations.
Mr Lee said the fire was "coming under control" shortly after midnight.
The blaze was upgraded to a level 5 alarm, the highest level of severity, as night fell.
The dead included one firefighter, officials said earlier.
A number of other firefighters were said to have been hurt while trying to tackle the flames as they ripped through the 31-storey towers.
Records show the Wang Fuk Court site consists of eight blocks, with almost 2,000 apartments housing around 4,800 residents, including many elderly people. It was built in the 1980s and has recently been undergoing a major renovation.
The fire, which broke out at 2.51pm local time, had spread on bamboo scaffolding and construction netting set up around the exterior of the complex.
It was not known how the fire started, but officials said it began on the external scaffolding of one of the buildings before spreading inside and to nearby buildings, likely aided by windy conditions.
Flames and smoke were still pouring out of many windows as night fell.
Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed condolences to the firefighter who died, and extended his sympathies to the families of the victims, according to state broadcaster CCTV. He also urged an "all-out" effort to minimise casualties and losses.
The UK's foreign secretary described the fire as "truly devastating and deeply depressing". Yvette Cooper said: "The UK sends heartfelt condolences to all the families affected and to the people of Hong Kong."
Tai Po is in the northern part of Hong Kong, and close to the border with the mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen.
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Bamboo scaffolding is a common sight in Hong Kong at building construction and renovation projects.
However, the government said earlier this year it would start phasing it out for public projects because of safety concerns.
The blaze is the deadliest fire in Hong Kong since the deaths of 41 people in a commercial building in Kowloon in November 1996.
That fire was later found to have been caused by welding during internal renovations, with a public inquiry yielding sweeping updates to building standards and fire safety regulations in the city's high-rise offices, shops and homes.
Rob Darke, 62, was left with a "life-changing injury" after being hit by Paul Doyle's Ford Galaxy Titanium on 26 May.
He had gone to celebrate Liverpool's Premier League title win with his two sons, but told Sky News how the "fantastic day turned into a nightmare" as he made his way home from the open-top bus parade.
In an exclusive interview, he said he heard "shouting and screaming" and "people coming flying towards me" and then "bang".
"I just stepped off the curb and the car wheel crushed my foot," he said, describing the pain as "absolutely incredible" as the skin was ripped from his heel.
"I thought it was terrorists," he said. "That's the first thing that came into my head. Who else would do a thing like that?"
"There were people lying about all over the place. It was like a bomb had gone off... it was carnage everywhere... people crying and screaming."
Mr Darke said he could hear "thumps from the car as people were being run over", adding: "It was horrific."
More than 130 people reported injuries after Doyle drove into crowds in Water Street just after 6pm. He was arrested at the scene.
Doyle pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown Court to 31 charges, relating to 29 victims, aged between six months and 77 years old, including eight who were children at the time.
He admitted a charge of wounding with intent relating to Mr Darke, who says he was taken to hospital to be "stitched up" after the attack.
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'Life or limb'
But he was left in "excruciating pain" when the injury became infected, and later needed to be rushed to A&E, where "it was life or limb".
Mr Darke said he was in a wheelchair for three months and had been left with a "life-changing injury" and is undergoing counselling for PTSD.
He said: "Out of one-and-a-half million people, why did it have to be me?"
He said father-of-three Doyle made "all the wrong choices" when he "decided he was going to plough into people", including women and children.
"How on earth could you do that? It's just beyond any comprehension," he added.
Military spokesperson Dinis N'Tchama said in a statement that the military had decided to "immediately depose the president of the republic" and suspend all government institutions.
He said they acted in response to the "discovery of an ongoing plan" that he said aimed to destabilise the country by attempting to "manipulate electoral results".
The "scheme was set up by some national politicians with the participation of a well-known drug lord, and domestic and foreign nationals", Mr N'Tchama said, but gave no details.
The country has emerged as a hub for drug trafficking between Latin America and Europe.
The electoral process was being suspended immediately, along with the activities of the media, while the country's borders were being closed, he said.
Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embaló told French television network France 24: "I have been deposed."
French news outlet Jeune Afrique quoted Mr Embaló as saying he was arrested in what he called a coup led by the army chief of staff but did not suffer violence.
An international election observer told Associated Press the president "has been speaking to people saying he's being held by the military".
Gunfire was heard near the presidential palace in the capital, Bissau, around noon on Wednesday.
A palace official said a group of armed men tried to attack the building, leading to an exchange of gunfire with guards.
Gunshots were also heard around the nearby national electoral commission, an interior ministry official said.
Both sources spoke on condition of anonymity.
Roads leading to the palace were closed off, with checkpoints manned by heavily armed and masked soldiers, an AP reporter said.
Meanwhile, Mr Embaló and opposition candidate Fernando Dias da Costa both claimed victory on Tuesday in the presidential and legislative elections held on Sunday, even though official provisional results were not expected until Thursday.
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Mr Embaló, who was elected in February 2020, was due to stand down earlier this year after serving a five-year term.
That was extended until 4 September by the country's supreme court, but voting was delayed until this month.
It was the latest of several coups in recent years in West Africa.
Guinea-Bissau has seen four coups and numerous attempted ones since it gained independence in 1974, including one reported last month.
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