The pain goes on for taxpayers
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Tory tax bombshell
Jeremy Hunt used his Autumn Statement to really put the boot into British taxpayers on Thursday. At almost every turn, the chancellor found a way to hike taxes while pushing spending even higher before the next election. From council tax, to income thresholds, to the cost of government crisis, it was grim news. Brits will be under the fiscal cosh for years to come.
Our chief executive, John O’Connell’s rapid response ([link removed]) to the statement dominated the coverage in some of Britain’s leading newspapers, including The Telegraph and The Sun, and was shared by top journalists on social media, helping set the narrative for this damaging fiscal plan.
Policy win - Foreign aid rise scrapped!
There was one area where Hunt showed some sense, and we have TPA supporters to thank for it! Last week, we asked you to help us defeat the idea of hiking the foreign aid budget, just when Brits were being asked to pay even more.
In this short and sharp campaign, we pointed out that the current reduced budget rate of 0.5 per cent was due to increase in 2023-24 - right in the midst of a cost of living crisis!
Our team sprung into action, launching a petition to give taxpayers a voice against this unfair decision. After a week of solid campaigning, in which thousands of you took up the call and signed the petition, we delivered the signatures straight to Downing Street on the eve of the fiscal event.
As I said outside the most famous street in the country: “This will always be a charitable country, but the chancellor must get his priorities in order and make money wasted overseas a thing of the past!”
In a display of TPA people power in action, Jeremy Hunt heeded our calls, and confirmed that the budget would not be increased in the near future - a big win for British taxpayers!
This result is only made possible by your ongoing generosity. Click here to back our campaign! ([link removed])
Crushing council tax
Unfortunately, the good news stops there. Jeremy Hunt opened the door to substantial increases to council tax in April. Bumping up the council tax cap leaves taxpayers exposed to surging bills that will hit household budgets hard. ([link removed])
Regular readers will know that there seems to be no end to waste at the local level. From executive pay ([link removed]) to bin collections ([link removed]) to solar farms ([link removed]) , town hall bosses must get their own houses in order before raiding residents for more cash!
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Joe Ventre, our digital campaigns manager, took our message to BBC Wales ([link removed]) , warning councils: “Let’s really make sure that any and all wasteful spending is eliminated before burdening residents with even higher bills during a cost of living crisis.”
Meanwhile, John’s comments condemning the move were widely picked up by the papers and online. In the Daily Mail ([link removed]) , John blasted: “Significant rate increases can't be justified while vanity projects and exorbitant salaries persist.”
We’re asking for your help to stop these mega hikes. Building on the success of our foreign aid petition, we’re calling on all councils to freeze or cut council tax next year, giving ratepayers some much needed relief. Click here to sign the petition! ([link removed])
Hunt's stealth hikes
Despite rightly branding inflation as “insidious”, the chancellor unleashed his own insidious raid on people's pockets. Adding insult to injury, Hunt froze the tax thresholds for income tax, national insurance, and inheritance tax! He slashed the top rate threshold, dividend and capital gains tax allowances.
We should all be under no illusions that these threshold freezes and cuts are simply stealth tax rises that will drag more and more hardworking Brits into higher and higher tax brackets.
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Elliot Keck, TPA investigations manager, was straight in front of the TV cameras ([link removed]) on College Green hammering our message home: “These are stealth tax rises that allow the chancellor to claim that he hasn’t broken a manifesto commitment but which actually will end up dragging millions more people into tax.”
John leapt to the defence of taxpayers ([link removed]) and summed the situation up perfectly: “Freezing thresholds will mean any hard-fought pay rises will go straight into the chancellor’s pocket. With inflation already bludgeoning Brits, the government has guaranteed years of falling living standards and sluggish growth.”
Spending spared cuts
The dog that didn’t bark on Thursday was the long trailed spending cuts we were told to expect.
In advance of the statement, TPA researcher Dr Mike Jones, laid out the severity of the spending situation in an op-ed for CapX ([link removed]) . Lending some historical context to the situation, Mike highlighted that “public spending is close to 45% of national income, higher than when James Callaghan left office in 1979 and comparable to the years following the 1973 oil crisis.” As he bluntly explained, the whopping size of the state means much of the Thatcher revolution has now been effectively undone.
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Spending restraint and tackling the cost of government crisis were once again put off. Let’s remember, total government expenditure in 2023-24 will be a monstrous £1.199 trillion, they will borrow £140 billion, and the national debt will reach the shocking level of £2.752 trillion.
Speaking to TalkTV, TPA chief economist Duncan Simpson railed against the smoke and mirrors on government profligacy ([link removed]) : “Quite a few of the measures to actually rein in spending are not going to be going into effect until 2025!”
Following up in the Daily Express, John reprimanded reckless ministers ([link removed]) : “Taxpayers will take a kicking over the coming years to pay for a raft of spending increases, with most tough decisions seemingly kicked into the long grass.”
The government must get a grip on its spiralling costs!
Blog of the week
In this week’s blog, we’ve taken a look at things Jeremy Hunt doesn’t want you to know ([link removed]) after his autumn statement.
The must-read memo, packed with nuggets that Hunt failed to mention in his speech, was sent round to journalists and politicians who were still making sense of the statement.
From hamstringing growth to the ballooning welfare state, we expose the things the chancellor tried to hide! Click here to have a read! ([link removed])
War on Waste
It wouldn’t be a TPA bulletin without a War on Waste story. Unfortunately, given the above, this one might make you spit out your cornflakes.
The latest TPA investigation, which splashed across the front page of the Daily Star, revealed that ÂŁ265,007 was spent on booze ([link removed]) in the taxpayer-subsidised parliamentary bars and canteens in a single year!
Hundreds of bottles of Champagne, thousands of bottles of wine, and tens of thousands of pints of beer and cider were knocked back by thirsty MPs, their staffers, and others between April 2021 and the end of March this year.
It’s high time Parliament joined the real world and paid full price for their rounds like the rest of us!
Benjamin Elks
Fundraising, Operations, and Events assistant
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