NOT ON OUR SIDE

THE British people face the largest fall in our material standard of living since records began to be kept 70 years ago. So whose side is the Government on?

The Chancellor, who has been photographed both putting £30 of petrol into a car he had borrowed from a Sainsbury’s employee for the purpose, and drinking his coffee out of a £180 mug, and recently applied for planning permission for a leisure complex with a gym and a swimming pool in the grounds of his £2million Yorkshire manor house, has refused to uprate Universal Credit and pensions in line with inflation - so 600,000 more people will be pushed into poverty. UC and pensions will increase by just 3%, while inflation is heading for 8%.

He has refused to cut VAT on gas and electricity, even though the energy price cap has risen to £2,000 and the next increase in October is predicted to take it to £2800. The Chancellor’s increase in the rate of National Insurance will still go ahead next week, and the level of taxation is the highest since the 1940s. He refuses to tax the excess profits of the oil companies, and increase wealth taxes such as capital gains tax.

The NI threshold has been raised, although only from July, but independent analysts such as the Resolution Foundation calculate that the wealthiest 20% of households will gain more from the Chancellor’s announcements than the poorest 20%. Just as those who can afford to run a car will benefit from the 5p a litre fuel tax cut. And while the Chancellor caused frenzy among well-heeled Conservative MPs by saying that he will spend money on cutting income tax just before the 2024 general election, the Army is being cut by 10,000 soldiers and losing 40% of its tanks despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and NHS waiting lists are at their highest ever.

We have a Government not on our side.