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.
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.
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.
The cut to the higher rate of capital gains tax was notable in the speech for the Chancellor’s nod to the Treasury and the OBR’s “inner Laffer Curve”. If only they would channel it more often.
Collectively, these measures will have been enough to ensure Tory MPs didn’t leave the Commons chamber feeling empty-handed. But none will have been fooled into thinking this was a transformative Budget.
The Chancellor prepared the ground for a general election campaign in which the Conservatives accuse Labour of being feckless.
A collection of responses to today’s statement from the Centre for Policy Studies, the Adam Smith Institute, and others.
The address delivered by Jeremy Hunt to the House of Commons this afternoon.
Key policies included a 2p cut to national insurance, extensions of the alcohol and fuel duty freezes, and the abolition of the non-dom tax status.
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.
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.