Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst MP said:
On Wednesday 30th October, the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, stood up to give her first Budget Statement. As the first woman to hold the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer, it was a seminal moment. However, it will be remembered as the Budget full of broken promises.
The independent Office of Budget Responsibility has given its own damning verdict on the Government’s plan, and it is a triad of despair: taxes up, borrowing up, inflation up.
At the recent General Election, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves made repeated promises to the British public. They promised that their spending plans were fully costed and there would be no requirement for tax rises. Yet, when delivering her Budget, the Chancellor has smashed those promises to pieces: fiddling the fiscal rules to borrow billions of pounds more every year and unleashing £40 billion of tax rises. And that is only the half of it. Labour’s Budget risks higher mortgage costs for longer. Their Budget has confirmed that, rather than protecting pensioners, they will cut winter fuel payments.
For residents here in Solihull West and Shirley, there is little to draw comfort from in this Budget. Businesses and hard working people alike will suffer. Taxes will be increase for every working person in the country. Growth will stall. Productivity will decline.
Sadly, there is a fundamental truth at the heart of this Budget that Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves always intended to raise taxes, letting borrowing rip. They just didn’t have the courage to be honest with the public at the election. The residents of Solihull West and Shirley deserve better.
