DAILY MAIL COMMENT: This was a painful budget - with worse to come

by · Mail Online

There are three kinds of lies, said Mark Twain. Lies, damned lies and statistics. If the novelist were still around, he might add another to that list – the Labour manifesto.

As was painfully confirmed yesterday, it was a document of such evasion, omission and downright untruth that it was nothing less than a confidence trick on the British people.

All their policies were 'fully costed', Labour had said. There would be no need to increase taxes apart from on public school fees, non-doms and fossil fuel firms. There would be no extra burden on 'working people'.

In her first Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves cynically reneged on those promises with a £40billion tax bombshell.

Using ludicrous claims of a 'secret' black hole in the nation's finances, she proceeded to fleece businesses, savers and those who strive to give their children a helping hand.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the country had 'voted for change' and vowed to 'invest' as she mounts one of the biggest raids in history in the Commons
Ms Reeves carried out the traditional photo op outside the famous No11 black door today 
The Budget tax hike rivals 1993's eyewatering revenue-raiser in the wake of Black Wednesday - and might be even bigger if measured at current prices rather than as a proportion of GDP

After the doom-laden build-up to the Budget, the man or woman on the street might have thought they had got off rather lightly when the Chancellor finally sat down.

There were no increase in the headline rates of income tax, VAT or National Insurance for employees. The thresholds for paying inheritance tax were frozen.

Ms Reeves confirmed fuel duty wouldn't rise next year. And even the price of a pint will be cheaper (albeit by one measly penny).

Many will also be pleased that an extra £25billion is being pumped into the NHS, although without reform this behemoth will remain a byword for waste and inefficiency.

This is where the good news ends. With Ms Reeves condemning the country to a record high tax burden, the idea that 'working people' will not be impacted is an illusion.

But rather than being upfront, she has used sleight of hand to pilfer their wallets.

A sharp increase in employers' National Insurance contributions is expected to bring in £25billion for the Treasury. This will hit the very working people the Chancellor says she wants to protect as a result of lower pay, higher prices or fewer jobs.

Meanwhile, she has kept the freeze on income tax thresholds until 2028, dragging millions more into taxation for the first time or moving them into higher bands.

Announcing the Government's plans for the NHS, Ms Reeves told the Commons: 'In the spring, we will publish a 10-year plan for the NHS to deliver a shift from hospital to community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention.
The Chancellor leaves 11 Downing Street, London, with her ministerial red box before delivering her Budget in the Houses of Parliament

Raising capital gains tax will punish businesses and those who invest in shares. And pensions will be raided for inheritance tax – punishing the responsible.

The depressing truth is Labour's economic policy is still shaped by redundant ideas of class warfare, best illustrated by its imposition of VAT on private school fees.

Promising to reverse what she claimed had been 14 years of public service decline under the Tories, the Chancellor said it was time to 'invest, invest, invest'. What she seems to have meant is 'borrow, borrow, borrow'.

By fiddling the fiscal rules, she has found £160billion more to spend. Already the markets are looking on nervously. Ms Reeves's binge risks forcing up interest rates – and mortgage costs – all in pursuit of protecting a ridiculously bloated state sector.

As for Sir Keir Starmer's boast that his Government is going to turbocharge growth, almost every measure is guaranteed to slam the brakes on it. Even Ms Reeves's beloved OBR has downgraded growth forecasts – laying the blame on her tax rises. It also predicts her plans will hurt living standards.

Sir Keir goes on about trust and change. This Budget shows Labour can't be trusted – and hasn't changed. They're still as obsessed with socialist-style tax, borrow and spend policies as they ever were.

The Mail warned before the election that ordinary families would pay the price. That painful process has begun. And, as the PM let slip this week, there's worse to come.

Budget 2024: Key points

Rachel Reeves became the first female chancellor to present a Budget today as she presented Labour's first government economic plan for 14 years.

In her Budget the Chancellor: 

  • Confirmed she was raising taxes by £40billion 
  • Froze fuel duty, when it was expected she would increase it, because of the impact on consumers.
  • Increased employer National Insurance Contributions by 1.2 points to 15 per cent from April, while reducing threshold from £9,100 to £5,000, to raise £25bn.
  • Made inherited pensions subject to inheritance tax.
  • Increased lower rate of capital gains tax from 10 to 18 per cent, and the higher rate from 20 to 24 per cent
  • Reveals economic growth is forecast to be just 1.6 per cent by the end of Labour's first term in office.
  • Announced a crackdown on fraud in the UK's welfare system, as part of reforms to ensure welfare spending is 'more sustainable'. 
  • Pledged to maintain the Bank of England's 2 per cent inflation target. 
  • Confirms National Living Wage will rise to £12.21 next year. 
  • Said she was 'deeply proud to be Britain's first ever female Chancellor of the Exchequer'.
  • Sparked uproar from the Tories by claiming it was 'not the first time that it has fallen to Labour to rebuild Britain'.
  • Accused the Tories of calling an early election 'to avoid making difficult choices' in the Budget themselves.
  • Announced she is setting aside £11.8bn and £1.8bn to pay victims of the infected blood and Post Office scandals respectively.