Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, said this would be a bigger tax cut than anything Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng tried
Good morning. If a budget is going to unravel, that often starts to happen on day two, after the initial headlines have gone and when the experts start to unpack what it really means. So far, there is not much sign of that happening, because Jeremy Hunt did not announce much yesterday that had not been well trailed in advance. But the reaction in Tory circles is a bit flat. And Labour has leapt on one of the more half-hearted proposals in the budget to make the case that Hunt is being even more irresponsible than Liz Truss.
Hunt said yesterday the Tories had a “long-term ambition” to get rid of employees’ national insurance. And in an email to Tory supporters last night Hunt said (bold text from the original):
This time, we’ve cut national insurance AGAIN – from 10% to 8%.
In total, across both tax cuts, that means the average British worker keeps £900 more a year.
It would cost many tens of billions to abolish NICs [national insurance contributions] entirely:
£39.96bn to abolish employee NICs main rate, going from 8p to 0p
You just asked me how I’m going to find £2.1bn, and I will do that.
But the government yesterday suggested that are going to cut national insurance entirely at a cost of £46bn pounds a year. That is a bigger unfunded commitment to tax cuts than even Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng tried.
Continue reading…Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, said this would be a bigger tax cut than anything Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng tried Good morning. If a budget is going to unravel, that often starts to happen on day two, after the initial headlines have gone and when the experts start to unpack what it really means. So far, there is not much sign of that happening, because Jeremy Hunt did not announce much yesterday that had not been well trailed in advance. But the reaction in Tory circles is a bit flat. And Labour has leapt on one of the more half-hearted proposals in the budget to make the case that Hunt is being even more irresponsible than Liz Truss.Hunt said yesterday the Tories had a “long-term ambition” to get rid of employees’ national insurance. And in an email to Tory supporters last night Hunt said (bold text from the original):This time, we’ve cut national insurance AGAIN – from 10% to 8%.In total, across both tax cuts, that means the average British worker keeps £900 more a year.It would cost many tens of billions to abolish NICs [national insurance contributions] entirely:£39.96bn to abolish employee NICs main rate, going from 8p to 0pYou just asked me how I’m going to find £2.1bn, and I will do that.But the government yesterday suggested that are going to cut national insurance entirely at a cost of £46bn pounds a year. That is a bigger unfunded commitment to tax cuts than even Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng tried. Continue reading…