Today, hardworking families across Britain are being hit with a one-two punch from the Labour Party. This week, we are bracing for the impact of Labour’s National Insurance Jobs Tax whilst we are still reeling from global uncertainty and Keir Starmer‘s economic mismanagement. Labour’s National Insurance Jobs Tax is punishing businesses and consumers whilst leaving workers to pick up the bill. If only Keir Starmer had resisted taxing the life out of working people, we wouldn’t be facing this Awful April. But he didn’t. And now we are.

Having inherited the fastest-growing economy in the G7, Labour has slammed it into reverse. Things were going so badly that Rachel Reeves’ had to have an emergency budget. There we found out that growth is falling, inflation is rising, and living standards are dropping. That means everything — from a pint of milk at the shop to a pint at the pub — is more expensive.

Household bills are going up by more than £1,000 a year. Council tax – which Starmer promised to freeze – is soaring. Eight separate household bills are rising, and Labour’s promises to “kickstart growth” ring hollow. It shows how out of touch they are.

Any qualified economist would see this as all the warning lights flashing red. But Rachel Reeves has her head buried in the sand. And rather than trying to fix things in the national interest, the Prime Minister and Chancellor are blaming everyone but themselves.

First, it was the Conservatives and a “black hole” that later turned out to not exist. Then, it was the regulators. Now, it’s so-called “unique economic headwinds”. They are taking British people for mugs.

But the truth is that it was the choices Labour made at their first Budget that are responsible.

Labour’s decision to slap a £25 billion National Insurance Jobs Tax on work is a work of economic vandalism. It will penalise risk taking and continue to make the UK increasingly less attractive to invest in.

The only thing this tax will achieve is to help fulfil Starmer and Reeves’ grim vision of managed decline.

Some on the left may cheer the crushing of aspiration and enterprise. But that’s not what Britain needs. This tax will make it more expensive to hire part-time workers – hitting low earners the hardest.

But don’t just take my word for it. As the independent IFS has made clear, young people, single parents, and those in flexible work will suffer the most. In Labour’s ideological war on business, it iss ordinary workers who are paying the price.

It could not come at a worse time. With the world becoming more, not less stable and an uncertain world economy making everything more expensive, now is not the time to take Britain back to the 1970s.

But bizarrely, Labour’s employment bill does just that. It is probably the first Bill that will do the exact opposite of what it says on the tin. It will unleash waves of strikes, suffocate businesses in red tape, and punish the small businesses who are the backbone of the UK.

It makes clear more than ever: Labour need to get their head out of the sand and start listening to the working people who’s lives they are making a misery.

Instead, he is focused on an ideological tax rise that punishes people who want to work and grow the economy.

Just this weekend, we found out Starmer had lied, u-turned and flip flopped over 100 times since becoming Labour leader five years ago. And one of the biggest betrayals is to Britain’s working people. Starmer personally and repeatedly promised them he would not to raise their taxes.

Now we see what he really meant: they would be first on the chopping block. And it doesn’t stop at businesses.

Hospices, charities, care homes — even services for dying children — are being hit by Labour’s tax rise. Conservatives fought to exempt these essential services. Labour MPs voted us down. We will keep fighting to get Labour to do the right thing — in Parliament and in the national interest.

But in the meantime, Awful April is here. And it is entirely Labour’s fault.