Rachel Reeves delivers largest tax raising budget in decades despite low growth forecast for the next five years
“Budget branded ‘Halloween horror show’ after £40bn in tax rises prompt GDP downgrade: Millions of workers face two years of stagnant pay after the Chancellor used her maiden Budget to launch a squeeze on workers and businesses, and warned that taxes could rise again to fund higher public spending. Ms Reeves vowed to “restore stability” to the economy and “rebuild Britain” with a wave of investment as she delivered Labour’s first Budget in 14 years…The biggest tax increase was a raid on employers’ National Insurance contributions, raising £25bn. Higher stamp duty for second home owners, an increase in capital gains tax and a string of changes to inheritance tax for landowners and pensions will raise billions more.” – Telegraph
- Record tax burden will stall growth, warns OBR – The Times
- So much for a Budget for growth! This is a return to big government – high tax, high spend, high borrowing. And you didn’t read that in Labour’s manifesto – Daily Mail
- Business and wealthy bear brunt of £40bn tax increases in UK Budget – FT
- Budget puts UK back ‘on a firm trajectory,’ says Reeves despite £40bn tax hike – The i
- Moment Rachel Reeves squirms and refuses to rule out MORE tax grabs – Daily Express
- Charts that show why Reeves has condemned Britain to a low-growth future – Telegraph
- Rachel Reeves’ first Budget leaves key economic challenges unresolved – FT
COMMENT
Rishi Sunak: Budget full of broken promises won’t fix the economy – The Times
Was Rishi Sunak right all along? – Unherd
Reeves has made her choice — but success is not guaranteed – Martin Wolf FT
No, the gentleman in Whitehall doesn’t know best – David Frost The Telegraph
A ‘traditional’ Labour budget — but will it actually spur growth? – The Times
Eight graphs that expose the truth about Labour’s Budget – Spectator
Labour are continuing the tradition of economic dishonesty – Henry Hill CapX
Labour’s economic policies are incoherent – The Critic
Hapless Reeves’ Budget will hurt the working man, reward idleness and wreck the economy for the next 5 years – Rod Liddle The Sun
TODAY
The Budget. A great reminder that even the worst Conservative government is better than a Labour one.
Mel Stride: The Budget took hammer to the hardworking backbone of Britain
John Oxley: A sharp reminder to Conservatives of the real cost of losing power
YESTERDAY
Andrew Gimson’s Budget sketch: Comrade Reeves delights the workers and peasants with class war
Labour are about to gamble in a big way. Conservatives need to be aware it could pay off
Chris Philp: Labour lied to the British public in order to win votes
National insurance hike ‘will be passed on to workers’
“Workers will bear the brunt of a £25 billion rise in employers’ national insurance bills that will directly hit living standards, the budget watchdog has said. Rachel Reeves announced a tax rise costing £800 per employee that the Office for Budget Responsibility said would directly lower wages and raise prices. Business leaders called the tax a “huge, huge burden” that would put companies off hiring and raising pay, but the chancellor is compensating public sector employers at a cost of £5 billion a year.” – The Times
- Labour’s tax bomb leaves Britons £300 worse off: UK faces highest tax burden ever, businesses are battered by the Budget, wages will fall and inflation will rise – Daily Mail
- Cough it up. Workers to be hit in the pocket with employers passing on £25bn National Insurance tax raid – The Sun
- OBR says budget unlikely to lift economic growth over next five years – Guardian
- Budget will cost average person £300 a year amid low growth, watchdog warns – The i
- Rachel Reeves bins ISA policy with two-word dismissal in Labour Budget – Daily Express
COMMENT
Fangs can only get better. Hidden dangers of Rachel Reeves’ nightmare Halloween Budget revealed – what it really means for your finances – The Sun
What does the budget mean for me? Use our tax calculator – The Times
Our bloated state will replicate the stagnation afflicting the biggest EU economies – Daily Mail
Jeremy Hunt angered by Labour’s claim of £22bn ‘black hole’ in public finances which is not backed up by OBR
“Rachel Reeves’s claims of a £22billion ‘black hole’ in the public finances have not been backed up by Britain’s economic watchdog. The Office for Budget Responsibility instead said only that the Treasury had failed to share information about £9.5billion of ‘net pressures’ on departments’ budgets. While the watchdog says it would have reached a ‘materially different judgment’ on Tory spending plans had the information been available, the size of the ‘black hole’ is less than half that the Chancellor claimed. Tory ex-chancellor Jeremy Hunt told the Mail: ‘They say you cannot judge how the £9.5billion would have scored but even if they had counted it all we would still have broadly met our fiscal rules.’” – Daily Mail
Chancellor hopes extra money for NHS and public services will make it easier to accept higher taxes and slow growth
“Rachel Reeves used her budget debut to announce a massive package of tax, spending and borrowing increases as she gambled on voters rewarding the government for patching up Britain’s crumbling public services. Insisting that she was delivering on the choices the public made in July’s general election, the chancellor told businesses and the better off that they must bear the brunt of £40bn of tax increases needed for an emergency NHS cash injection…The chancellor raised £25bn by increasing employer national insurance contributions and hit those on higher incomes through increases in capital gains and inheritance tax, and changes to the rules covering wealthy foreign individuals living in Britain” – Guardian
- Billions for NHS is just the start of Reeves’s tax-fuelled spending spree – Telegraph
- NHS wins record rise in funding – but patients ‘are unlikely to notice’, – Daily Mail
- NHS patients face two year wait to feel effects of £25bn Budget boost – The i
Reeves accused of betraying small family firms with inheritance tax rises
“Tax rises aimed at inherited wealth are at risk of backfiring, after the chancellor was accused of betraying small family businesses while letting private equity bosses off the hook. Labour’s first budget in 14 years included measures to close inheritance tax (IHT) loopholes and press ahead with scrapping the controversial non-dom tax status, as well as levying higher taxes on private jet flights. But Rachel Reeves came under fire from campaigners for pulling her punches on the rich, while she also faces a furious backlash from farmers and small business owners over fears that tax rises could force family firms to sell up.” – Guardian
- Closure of UK inheritance tax ‘loophole’ to penalise estates of wealthy pensioners – FT
- Jeremy Clarkson accuses Labour of ‘shafting’ farmers in inheritance tax raid – Telegraph
- Waspi women threaten legal action after Reeves ignores compensation in Budget – The i
Child benefit reforms to end unfairness to single parents scrapped by Reeves
“Rachel Reeves has dropped plans to overhaul the way child benefits are calculated for higher earners, leaving open the risk that single parents are unfairly penalised.Former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt had proposed reforming the high income child benefit charge (HICBC) to close the eligibility gap between dual and single income households. But Reeves said she would not take forward the plans due to the “significant fiscal cost of £1.4bn”. The HICBC forces parents earning more than £60,000 to begin to pay back child benefits, at a staggered rate. The system, first introduced in 2012 as way to means-test child benefit, is based on the income of the highest earner rather than the income of the whole household.” –The i
Evidence that tackling asylum backlog will not actually save £2.2bn
“The Home Office has committed itself to making £2.2 billion of savings by slashing the asylum backlog over the next two years, despite insiders warning that such figures are unrealistic. Budget documents revealed that the Home Office’s day-to-day budget would fall by an average of 3.2 per cent over the next two years, with most of these cuts coming from the amount of money spent on the asylum system, which has soared to £6.4 billion a year. The Home Office has agreed to cut asylum spending this financial year by £200 million and by a further £2 billion in 2025-26. A further £2 billion will be saved through scrapping the Rwanda deportation scheme. However, Home Office sources said that the asylum savings set out inthe budget were based upon a “weak evidence base” and pointed to a damning report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) in August that accused the department of “woeful budgeting” since 2021. One source warned that it was “inevitable” that the Home Office would have to “go back to the Treasury with a begging bowl” because the department had submitted unrealistic targets for cutting the asylum backlog.” – The Times
Senior Conservatives pressure Starmer to reveal what he knew about Southport suspect – and when
“Sir Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper are under growing pressure to reveal what they knew about the suspect accused of the Southport killings amid accusations it is “not plausible” for them to have found out only this week. Dame Priti Patel, the former home secretary, joined with the two candidates in the Tory leadership contest in calling on the Prime Minister and Home Secretary to say what they knew and when about the charges before they were made public. Jonathan Hall KC, the Government’s independent reviewer of terror legislation, also said ministers should be more open with the public about information on terror cases.” – Telegraph
- Why has Southport not been declared a terror attack? – Spectator
NEWS IN BRIEF
A tax, borrow and spend Budget is not what Britain needs – CapX
A recipe for decline – The Critic
Labour’s Budget is a missed chance to solve Britain’s benefits problem – Spectator
Labour’s blueprint for decline – Unherd
