Budget will be ‘painful’ with millions facing tax rises as Starmer warns ‘things WILL get worse before they get better’
BRITS will suffer from an onslaught of “painful” decisions at the Autumn Budget, Sir Keir Starmer warned today.
In a major speech the PM laid the ground for sweeping tax raids as he insisted that households must endure “short term pain” for the “long term good” of the economy.
Speaking from the sun-soaked No10 Rose Garden, the PM argued that “things are worse than we ever imagined”.
Sir Keir said: “There is a Budget coming in October and it is going to be painful.
“We have no other choice given the situation we are in.”
The PM hammered the Tories for taking a wrecking ball to the economy as he vowed to fix the “rot” blighting public services and growth.
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He pledged to fill a £22bn black hole in the public purse and create an economy that “works for everyone”.
Sir Keir insisted that wealth creation is the “number one priority” of his government.
But he added that before the economy improves, life will feel worse and “trade-offs” in the October 30 budget will be essential to get Britain back on its feet.
Addressing an audience of nurses, teachers, firefighters and small business bosses, Sir Keir said: “Just as when I responded to the riots, I’ll have to turn to the country and make big asks of you as well, to accept short term pain for long term good.
“The difficult trade off for the genuine solution.
“We can get through this together.”
The PM repeated his election campaign vow not to hike income tax, national insurance or VAT.
But he strongly hinted that other levies aren’t as safe.
Capital gains and inheritance tax are among those tipped for a raid by Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
Sir Keir said: “We were being honest about the situation before the election, we set out very clearly what we would be doing with tax rises.
“What I did not expect was a £22 billion black hole.”
The PM described how the crisis in the public purse manifested
during the far-right riots ministers constantly had to check whether there would even be enough space to lock-up yobs.
He said that the dire state of public finances has put the prison system on the brink of collapse, with overcrowding leaving the public at risk.
“But these riots didn’t happen in a vacuum, they exposed the state of our country, revealed a deeply unhealthy society, the cracks in our foundations laid bare, weakened by a decade of division and decline, infected by a spiral of populism which fed off cycles of failure of the last government.
He pledged to make boosting wealth and growing the economy the “number one priority of this Labour Government”.
And he insisted that his top team has done more for the country in seven weeks than the Conservatives managed in seven years.
Sir Keir launched a fresh onslaught on Tory sleaze, highlighting the Rose Garden as a scene of lockdown gatherings.
He vowed to put himself at the service of workers as he addressed an audience of nurses, teachers, firefighters and small business bosses.
The attack is thought to try to pave the way for tax rises at the Budget and seek to justify scrapping universal winter fuel payments for pensioners.