Thursday 17 November 2022 11:38 PM DAILY MAIL COMMENT: A Budget to break the back of Middle Britain trends now
View
comments
If the Tory Party stands for anything, surely it is for the virtues of hard work, aspiration and prudence.
As all good Conservatives know, individuals spend their money more wisely than the State. And taxes are a necessary evil which should be kept to the barest minimum.
So it's profoundly depressing that Jeremy Hunt's Autumn Statement defied each one of those fundamental principles.
Of course, the Mail understands the need to repair the public finances. After the astronomical borrowing binge during Covid, the global economic slump and higher costs fuelled by the war in Ukraine, our balance sheet is covered in red ink.
Jeremy Hunt's Autumn Statement defied core Tory principles
But it's a grotesque overreaction for the Chancellor to saddle us all with the biggest tax burden ever known in peacetime.
And in a move straight out of Gordon Brown's playbook, the biggest losers will be the hard-pressed families of Middle Britain.
Traditionally they are bedrock Tory voters. After this, many will inevitably wonder if there's any point voting for the party at the next election.
With sky-high inflation eating away at disposable income, and wages taking a substantial hit, they face the biggest fall in living standards in post-war history.
By extending by stealth the freeze on income tax thresholds, Mr Hunt is dragging millions more workers into taxation for the first time or into the higher bracket.
The 40p rate was once a levy on the
