Labour MP Dan Tomlinson has hit out at Reform UK’s Robert Jenrick over proposals to compensate taxpayers for long HMRC phone waits, accusing him of offering “policy gimmicks” instead of fixing public services.
Jenrick suggested that under Reform, taxpayers left waiting on the phone to HMRC for 30 minutes would receive a £30 tax credit at the end of the year.
But Tomlinson dismissed the proposal and said Labour had already cut average HMRC waiting times by more than half through investment and internal reform.
Responding directly to Jenrick on X, Tomlinson said:
“There’s a much better way Robert. It’s called just getting on and fixing things.”
He said the average wait on HMRC phone lines stood at around 24 minutes at the time of the general election, compared with around 10 minutes in recent months.
Tomlinson attributed the improvement to Labour investment in HMRC customer services and changes designed to increase digital contact and speed up responses.
He said:
“This is because Labour invested in HMRC customer services & because Ministers, myself included, drove forward big internal reforms that increased digital contact and sped up answer times.”
The Labour MP argued that the focus should be on making HMRC work better rather than creating a compensation scheme around poor performance.
He concluded:
“Better to have Labour Ministers improving things than Reform pretenders with policy gimmicks!”
The exchange is the latest example of Labour seeking to draw a contrast with Reform by presenting itself as focused on delivery and practical improvements to public services.
HMRC phone waiting times have long been a source of frustration for taxpayers and businesses, making customer service performance an important test for ministers.
Tomlinson’s intervention puts Labour’s argument simply: rather than pay people because a service is failing, government should make sure the service improves in the first place.
