Exactly how much tax do we have to pay to satisfy this Chancellor?
Answer: I don’t think it ever will be enough. Rachel Reeves, like so many in the Labour Party, sees higher taxes as a virtue. Not a necessary burden to fund things we all rely on, such as the NHS, roads, defence and the state pension, but as a tool of class warfare, a way to bash the rich. The more, the better.
Reeves has been borrowing a staggering £20billion a month despite imposing the biggest tax burden in peacetime history. So another £11.6billion on the national debt in a month – a single month, remember – is seen as good news.
So far this financial year, Reeves has raised £56billion more tax than she did last year. Yet she’s still had to borrow a frankly unbelievable £140billion.
Reeves is throwing the money around, particularly on welfare, with five million benefit claimants being paid not to work. Public sector workers have enjoyed hefty pay rises, their wages are up an inflation-busting 7.9%, compared with just 3.6% in the private sector,.
Labour treats tax rises as a moral good, but they’re crushing growth. The economy has failed to grow in five of the last nine months.
Yet Reeves refuses to rule out even more tax hikes in this year’s Budget. It doesn’t matter how much tax this free-spending chancellor raises. It will never, ever be enough. Brace yourselves.