Rachel Reeves, the first female Chancellor in history, was greeted with much fanfare amongst the wokerati as she announced her Autumn Budget was for “hardworking families up and down the country who have been crying out for change” (honestly, you’d think women had never been in control of the purse strings before). But that was about the extent of the celebrations, particularly when the details of the Budget emerged.
Taxes have been raised by £40 billion, with annual spending increased to £70 billion. National Insurance and Capital Gains Tax are up, energy costs have risen, borrowing has reached its highest levels since October, and pensioners are feeling the squeeze.
In short, Labour has lied.
A montage of videos on social media posted by Reform shows the number of times Labour promised not to raise taxes and pledged economic growth. Instead, they’ve implemented absurd policies that the British people did not vote for.
If you run a business, drive a car, own a house, and manage to afford a holiday every year while enjoying a relatively comfortable life, Labour genuinely despises you. Those with fewer resources will also pay the price—for workers this tax hike will make living unaffordable.
Throughout the campaign, Labour promised change and pledged to improve lives through pragmatic decisions, focusing on working people and ensuring retired pensioners received more support, as outlined in the Pension Bill, part of their legislative agenda in July. In every speech, they reiterated that taxes would not be raised. Keir Starmer even shared a sombre anecdote about a pensioner who couldn’t afford heating and pledged to eradicate such hardship. Yet, the Winter Fuel Allowance has been cut and State Pensions will increase by only 4.1%, although the Triple Lock will be reinstated.
The British people have been dealt a series of heavy blows.
Where we would expect inflation to drop, wise investments to be made, and tax cuts to be a priority—allegedly, so the manifesto stated, values central to Labour’s identity—we instead face inflation-busting handouts to trade unions, spiralling welfare spending, neglected farming families due to inheritance tax reforms, and a minimum bus fare increase from £2 to £3. Rail fares are also set to rise by 4.6%.
Although wages have slightly increased, and the price of a pint has dropped by a penny, £22.6 billion has been added to the NHS, with billions funnelled into education, despite Labour’s previous emphasis on reform over funding. Rachel Reeves—who claimed she didn’t plan to be a big tax-raising Chancellor—has plunged the country into more debt, while refusing to rule out future tax increases.
With taxes at record levels, Reeves celebrated her ‘success’ by visiting a pub with her civil servants shortly after the Budget, presumably taking advantage of the cheaper pints. Labour continues to blame the Conservative government for a so-called £22 billion black hole, but this claim is now confirmed as unsubstantiated by Britain’s economic watchdog.
The only black hole in this country is the one Labour has dug for itself, one that they will inevitably fall into. For people of my age who have never seen a Labour government in action before, our eyes have been well and truly opened.
The approval ratings of both Labour and Starmer continue to drop as they dangerously pursue their socialist agenda. The country mistakenly voted these moral relativists in—and now we must endure five gruelling years of betrayal and bitterness. Unless of course Starmer continues on his downward trajectory, in which case he will soon be as unpopular as Liz Truss – and we all know how that ended.
Jack Watson has a Substack newsletter called Ten Foot Tigers about being a Hull City fan. You can subscribe here.
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