Rachel Reeves is playing dirty – she’s set a nasty trap for Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage
The Chancellor has pushed Britain a little further along the road to ruin.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves will leave a horrible legacy for whoever follows (Image: Getty)
During the election, Rachel Reeves promised growth would be her main priority. Instead, growth has collapsed on her watch. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) did lift its estimate for this year to 1.5% on Wednesday, but lowered it for the next five years.
Lots of things are growing on Labour’s watch though. Unemployment, inflation, borrowing, the national debt and deficit, and of course taxes and public spending. This is a disaster for hard-working taxpayers, but not just them. I’ve just spotted a deeper danger. Reeves has played a dirty trick on whoever follows her.
And that could spell trouble for Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch or Reform UK’s Nigel Farage, or whoever takes power after voters turf Labour out.
Reeves has hiked taxes by £66billion yet the national debt continues to rise and so will the cost of servicing the interest on it, from £114billion this year to more than £140billion by 2030. Working people will pay the price but here’s the odd thing.
Reeves hiked a whole heap of taxes but most won’t kick in until shortly before the next election. Extending income tax thresholds will raise £8.3billion a year and pension salary sacrifice a further £4.7billion, but the Treasury won’t see a penny until 2029.
Institute for Fiscal Studies director of research Helen Miller dubbed it a “spend now, pay later” Budget.
That’s weird. Chancellors typically like to cut taxes before an election, to inspire voters. Reeves is doing the opposite. Why?
At first that didn’t make sense to me. But then I got it. By the time these taxes kick in, the nation’s finances may be in a right old mess. But Reeves won’t be the one to clear up. Nor will Starmer.
Whoever wins the next election, to be held by 2030 at the latest, will have a horrible job. Reeves has just made sure of that.
The next Government will inherit an even bigger black hole than Reeves did, or the coalition after Labour’s Gordon Brown. Millions more will be trapped on benefits, funded by furious taxpayers.
The new PM, whether it’s Badenoch or Farage, will have take an axe to public spending. They’ll have no choice.
And they’ll be hated for it. While many feel state spending has raced out of control, woe betide the PM who actually does something about it.
Reeves tried to cut the winter fuel payment and trim £5billion off the welfare benefits bill. A massive outcry forced a U-turn.
Imagine if a new government is forced to curb spending by multiples of that amount. Every cut will be painted as a savage attack on the poor and vulnerable.
Reeves knows her spending spree must be reined in at some point, but she won’t do it. She’ll leave the dirty work to somebody else, while Labour returns to its comfort zone, sitting smugly on the sidelines moaning about “Tory austerity”. The backlash will sink the new government, before it even begins. And Reeves will love it. It’ll be her one policy that worked.
