As looming Budget tax hikes create such fear that 24% of Brits plan to ditch the festive tree and 19% their turkey, Rachel Reeves could become the grinch that stole Christmas – then tanked the economy. Although the Chancellor’s yo-yoing fiscal plans are still unknown (maybe even to her!) fears over tax hikes and price rises has already led to 21% of UK adults worrying they cannot afford to celebrate Christmas this year.

A new poll of 1,000 shoppers from BuytoGive, the UK’s online marketplace dedicated to fundraising, makes for worrying reading if you’re a retail business – or hoping to fill your bar, restaurant, hotel or café over the seasonal break. Almost a third of UK adults plan to buy fewer or no presents to economise – while crucially for the economy 51% have vowed to spend less than last year.

Ringing alarm bells, BuytoGive’s Kevin Turner said: “The cost of living crisis continues to bite and fears of looming tax rises in Rachel Reeves’s Budget have caused households to look again at Christmas spending.”

All year I have met and spoken to charities and businesses across England and they have all said the same thing – the costs of employing staff are crippling them.

Christmas is traditionally when we spend quality time with our families and friends – and spend in the high street – giving businesses a vital boost for the quieter months.

Could there be a worse-timed Budget of misery in UK history? Like a dentist reassuring us to lift a hand if we feel the drill, we all know it’s going to damn well hurt.

Ms Reeves even gave a bizarre pre-Budget speech warning pain is on the cards and to brace ourselves, the equivalent of telling us to rush to the bomb shelters and put our gas masks on.

She laid out the challenges saying the Government must make “necessary, not popular” choices to restore stability and rebuild public trust.

But whenever Labour come to power they always do what’s popular – that is why they end up leaving the country’s coffers empty.

She also said Labour must make “necessary choices” and said everyone would have to “contribute”. That’s what Stalin said before throwing your family in a gulag.

Shocking new Office for National Statistics (ONS) data shows Labour has allowed borrowing to rise to a staggering £20.2billion in September, the highest September borrowing figure for five years.

That’s despite raking in the increase in employers’ National Insurance they imposed to the fury of British struggling businesses last year.

The ONS blamed September’s rise in borrowing and national debt in part on Labour’s zealous hike in wages and public sector pay settlements.

ONS chief economist Grant Fitzner said: “Debt interest, the cost of providing public services and benefits all increased compared with last year [and] more than offset the rise in receipts from central Government taxes and National Insurance.”

In other words, last year Reeves took an NI cash grab from businesses, made it harder for them to hire workers and then paid out more in state handouts, presumably to all the new unemployed.

Why – if we want to grow businesses and the economy – do we increase the tax on businesses to employ people? It makes no sense.

Labour’s 2024 election manifesto pledged not to raise the basic, higher, or additional rates of income tax, or National Insurance – prompting a row last autumn after hiking those NI contributions.

Then in recent weeks, the Chancellor hinted she could increase income tax –  potentially breaking Labour’s election promise again.

She dipped that toe in the water and it was chewed off, so then claimed it suddenly wasn’t needed due to better than expected new financial forecasts.

So where does that leave us as we approach that Budget – and crucially our Chrimbo?

Brits aren’t spending fearing the Budget will whack them in the gulags while prices are rising by 3.6% with inflation well above the Bank of England’s 2% target.

Julian Jessop, Economics Fellow at the free market think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs, said of new inflation figures this week: “Inflation is still well above the Bank of England’s 2% target.

“Moreover, there is still a worryingly large gap between inflation in the UK and in the euro area (where it is expected to be 2.1% in October). This gap can mostly be explained by Government policy choices, including the large increases in labour and other business costs since last Autumn’s Budget.”

It’s the double whammy of the rising price of our Christmas shopping trolley – plus likely taxes in Reeves’s Budget hitting our pay packet.

Unless she finds a last minute fiscal stocking filler, Reeves will be the grinch that stole Christmas – then torpedoed New Year and Easter too.