When we look at the priorities of Conservative voters, 46 per cent want the cost-of-living and inflation tackled, 36 per cent want energy security improved, 30 per cent want economic growth to return, and only 14 per cent want taxes cut.
These measures offer scope for up to £100 billion of savings through recaptured productivity, lower losses by state concerns, more private green investment, and fewer low wage migrants.
When asked about the overall effect, only 14 per cent of voters said they thought the Budget would leave them better off personally, with 2019 Labour voters (19 per cent) more likely to say this than 2019 Tories (12 per cent).
Last week, Jeremy Hunt took important first steps toward solving three serious problems: the system’s anti-family bias, too much disparity in how earned and unearned income is treated, and absurd marginal rates.
A mandate for abolition provided by a manifesto pledge might be easier for the markets to accept than just ignoring it in the pursuit of tax cuts, as Liz Truss attempted.
I have a theory: more often than not, a political party is better at evaluating its opponent’s political weaknesses than its own.
To those who say that election year budgets should offer short-term giveaways, I say this: history tells us that the British public is much too smart and much too sceptical to be bribed.
The Health Secretary is pressed by Trevor Phillips over whether freezing tax thresholds means that the Government is really raising the tax burden, not lowering it.
The former chancellor talks to GB News’ Camilla Tominey about the Budget.
It’s going to take a lot more than a few pennies off National Insurance to save the Conservative Party from what looks set to be a looming election defeat.
This move would be perfectly targeted on the people who, by definition, need most income support, and gets to them far more cheaply than a universal tax break would.
Just over one fifth preferred no increase in the military budget and more tax cuts. Grant Shapps’ demands for more cash have cut through with members – but show little sign of having persuaded the Treasury.
A simple change in the Finance Bill could extend our world-leading pro-investment regime for plant and machinery to investment in new brownfield housing, and spur development in many sites currently sitting idle.
Ministers have no business giving British investors bad investment advice; much less forcing them to follow that advice.
Our forebears worked hard to place us in our privileged place in today’s world. But we inherited that position without having to work for it, and now we’re far more interested in spending and consuming our wealth than in earning it.