Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Budget was a manifesto breaking, economy busting, job destroying, wealth attacking, welfare ballooning, tax raising disgrace of a Budget. It was anti growth, anti-aspiration, anti-success, and anti-farmers.
Time and again Labour promised not to put up taxes on working people. It was a complete lie. Within months of taking office in her first Budget Reeves raised taxes by £40 billion and last week she added a further £26 billion. Both her and the Prime Minister claimed they needed to fill a £22 billion black hole. Another lie.
At the weekend it emerged, the Office of Budget Responsibility told the Chancellor long before the Budget, that the economic picture had significantly improved and that, instead of a deficit, she had a surplus of £4.2bn. Yet she still chose to go ahead to save her job, Keir Starmer’s and appease the hard left of the Labour Party at the expense of the country.
Her actions will drag nearly 800,000 low-income workers into tax for the first time and more than 900,000 others into the higher rate tax brackets by extending the freeze on personal tax thresholds until April 2031. Another broken promise. Another lie.
Abolishing the two-child benefit limit (for those on universal credit) will give an estimated 560,000 families an extra £5,300 in benefits. That is at a time when workers are going to lose anywhere between £800 to £2,000. I have constituents contacting me saying this this is not right, and they are working six days a week to provide for their families, it is simply not fair. I agree with them.
We should be incentivising people to work, celebrating success and aspiration but Labour seems intent on rewarding shirkers and punishing workers.
I am not talking about those unable to work, it is right we protect the most vulnerable in society. This is about people who could find work but choose not to.
I want to see more employment opportunities and our local businesses supported. But Rachel Reeves seems intent on destroying them. Business across Tatton have been clear; they cannot take anymore. They are still trying to absorb costs imposed on them from the last Budget and now they face even higher staffing costs with further increases in the minimum wage.
This government is sucking the life out of the economy and the country cannot take anymore of this.
