- Families facing £290 tax hike next year despite 1p cut, new analysis reveals
- Kwarteng’s budget “staggeringly out of touch”
- Mark Fullbrook saga: We need an urgent investigation into conflicts of interest
Families facing £290 tax hike next year despite 1p cut, new analysis reveals
A typical family will see their taxes hiked by £290 next year despite the 1p tax cut, new research by the Liberal Democrats has revealed, while top bankers are handed a tax giveaway of over £100,000.
It comes as analysis shows the total tax hit from the Conservative government’s freeze on income tax thresholds is now set to reach £32.4 billion over the next two years – £6.5 billion more than previously expected. The figures are based on an update of the OBR’s previous forecasts undertaken by the House of Commons Library, taking into account soaring inflation.
Liberal Democrat research shows a household with two adults paid the median salary of £31,876 will pay an additional £290 in income tax next year as a result of the freeze, despite the basic rate being reduced from 20% to 19%. This tax bill will rise to £590 by 2024-25, due to the tax threshold remaining frozen as inflation goes even higher.
A teacher on a starting salary of £25,700 will see their taxes rise by £121 next year (2023/24), once the freeze of the income tax threshold is taken into account, while an NHS nurse will see a £107 rise.
Meanwhile, a top banker earning £2.5 million will see a tax cut of over £117,000. It means the Conservative government’s tax giveaway to one top-earning banker would be enough to cancel the tax hike for over 1,000 nurses.
Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:
It is staggeringly unfair that this Conservative government is hiking taxes on struggling families while giving big businesses and banks a massive tax giveaway.
Cutting taxes for the most wealthy while hammering ordinary people with years of stealth taxes shows just how out of touch this government has become.
The facts are clear: Liz Truss and the Conservatives are only cutting taxes for the few, while millions of people will pay more.
Kwarteng’s budget “staggeringly out of touch”
Responding to Kwasi Kwarteng’s performance on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Sarah Olney MP said:
Kwasi Kwarteng and this Conservative Government are staggeringly out of touch. He showed in his budget that banks and billionaires come first, while families and pensioners come last.
This Government has shown its true colours, making regular people pay in the long run for their economic vandalism. Now, they must cancel recess and allow Parliament to have a say on these shambolic plans.
Mark Fullbrook saga: We need an urgent investigation into conflicts of interest
Commenting on the report by the Sunday Times which said Liz Truss’s Chief of Staff Mark Fullbrook has been ‘seconded’ to Number 10 from a lobbying firm, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper MP said:
Liz Truss’s administration is proving to be nothing more than the same as Boris Johnson’s, miring itself in sleaze, not even a month into the job.
Her top advisors must not appear to be above the rules and laws of the land. We need to see an urgent independent investigation into any conflicts of interest, anything less than this risks looking like an admittance of wrongdoing.
This Conservative Government should know better than to undermine the long-standing rules we have in place.
7 Comments
Unless there is some kind of event held in lieu of a conference, in which our spokespeople make their keynote speeches, these sort of reactions to the government’s reckless economic policies and disregard of standards are unlikely to be widely reported in the media.
In normal times Ed Davey would have been interviewed by the major news channels during the conference. Is he to be denied this sort of exposure this year?
An emergency event (with largely online attendance, to make it more easily arranged) is needed soon after the Tory conference.
An in-person event would garner far more press coverage than online and can be easily arranged at short notice.
Jason Conner:
I meant a hybrid event. I do not think it practical to find a venue and organise a very large event at short notice. The timing is what is most important; the Party needs to present speeches with considered responses particularly to the Conservatives, but also to what we have heard from Labour. To be effective, this is needed in the next two weeks.
I suggest that this report be used in the the regular emails to members. Perhaps suggestions which might be used in conversations with friends and neighbours. Also ideas on what should be done by the government to ensure that the current threat or often reality of poverty be removed.
Opinion polls aren’t really improving for the Lib Dems, yet the economy is in crisis and Lab have no actual solution. Isn’t it time we flew the banner for Rejoin?
@Christian
“Isn’t it time we flew the banner for Rejoin?”
Politics is the art of the possible. Even if the entire population of the UK favoured rejoining it’s going to take years. It won’t begin to solve our immediate economic problems.
Martin Unless there is some kind of event held in lieu of a conference
Maybe a few media friendly policy announcements?
For example
LibDems propose a windfall tax on the worldwide assets of anyone with an income in excess of £155k and thus in receipt of kwasi kwarteng’s economic stimulus…
LibDems propose to reinstate Riski’s NHS payroll deduction.
…