The REAL reason our tax bills are so high – and why Rachel Reeves is coming back for more
Exactly how much tax do we have to pay to satisfy this Chancellor?
Chancellor Rachel likes to tax, tax, tax… then spend, spend, spend (Image: Getty)
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.
Ed Miliband offered a perfect example this week, boasting that last November’s Budget hit the wealthy. It didn’t. In reality, most of Labour’s tax rises will fall on ordinary people. The real heavy lifting is being done by frozen income tax thresholds, which are quietly dragging millions into higher rates and pushing Treasury revenues to record highs.
Now here’s the thing. Yet no matter how much tax Reeves raises, it’s still not enough. December’s figures, published today, prove it.
Last month, the Chancellor raked in a record £94billion in tax, the highest ever December total, up £7.7billion in a year. A large chunk came from her so-called “jobs tax”, announced in her maiden Budget in October 2024. That adds £26billion a year to employers’ costs by hiking National Insurance on staff, particularly lower earners.
Businesses responded by hiking prices, cutting wages and freezing recruitment. Under Labour, unemployment has climbed from 4.1% to 5.1%, and it’s likely to rise further. Reeves’s jobs tax was incredibly damaging, but it’s scarecely touched the wealthy at all.
The same goes for the income tax threshold freeze, which hits more than 37million workers and pensioners. Does Miliband think they’re all wealthy? Heaven knows what goes on in his head.
Yet despite all those extra tax revenues, Reeves still can’t balance the books. She borrowed another £11.6billion in December just to make ends meet. Remarkably, Labour is spinning this as good news. Why? Markets expected her to borrow even more. Which says it all.
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.
