HARD-WORKING Brits were handed a £450 tax hike today as Jeremy Hunt froze fuel tax for another year and overhauled child benefit.
The Spring Budget sweepstakes saw the chancellor also freeze tax on alcohol in a big win for Sun readers following our campaigns to keep drinks and fuel taxes low.
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Jeremy Hunt presented the Spring Budget in the Commons todayCredit: AFP
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The chancellor posed with other members of the Ministry of Finance teamCredit: Rex
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Jeremy Hunt addressed the Cabinet ahead of the Spring Budget this afternoonCredit: Simon Walker / Downing Street No. 10
But there was a big blow to smokers, because due to the new tax on gays and cigarettes, prices will reach record levels.
In what could be the last Budget before Britain goes to the polls, Mr Hunt doubled the 2p cut to National Insurance last November – a saving of £900 a year for the average worker.
It came after the government’s economic watchdog confirmed that inflation should fall below 2% in a few months.
The spring budget at a glance
Mr Hunt said: “Tax cuts matter to the Conservatives in a way they never could to Labour.
“We believe that in a free society the money you earn does not belong to the government.
“Belongs to you.
“And if we want to encourage hard work, we should let people keep as much of their own money as possible.”
Read more about the spring budget
Taxes on beer, wine and spirits due to rise in August will now be frozen until February next year in a victory for the Sun’s Save Our Sups campaign.
The move will benefit 38,000 drinkers across the UK.
Mr Hunt said: “We value our hospitality industry and support a great British pub.”
Fuel duty will also be frozen for another year, with a 5p reduction, in another success of The Sun’s Keep It Down campaign.
The freeze will save the average car driver £50 next year and bring total savings since the 5p cut was introduced to around £250.
Spring Budget 2424: 27 million workers in for a £450 pay rise thanks to new National Insurance cuts
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Today’s budget at a glance
Mr Hunt thanked The Sun for being a champion for motorists through the 10-year campaign to cut tolls.
It was bad news for smokers, who face a record £16 per pack tax and a new tax on cigarettes.
But even better news for parents is that the Child Benefit threshold for high earners has been raised from £50,000 to £60,000.
And the taper peak at which the benefit is withdrawn has been increased from £60,000 to £80,000
The change means that no-one earning under £60,000 will pay the levy, leaving 170,000 families to pay it all together.
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Annual inflation rates rise between January 2014 and January 2024
The chancellor also announced a “significant” plan to cut waste and boost productivity in public services, including the NHS.
The strategy includes £3.4bn for the NHS to modernize its IT systems – and in turn unlock £35bn of savings.
The new technology system should reduce the 13 million hours that nurses and doctors lose each year to outdated computer systems.
And it will speed up outcomes for 130,000 patients a year, potentially saving thousands of lives.
Mr Hunt said: “The NHS has stood by us throughout the pandemic.
“And today with almost £6 billion of extra funding, the Conservative government is here for the NHS.”
Analysis by The Sun’s political editor Harry Cole
So, Jeremy Hunt fired the cannon into an election campaign with a highly political budget.
There was much shouting, but with the cupboard bare, there was not as much giving as the Chancellor would have liked on the eve of battle.
As he delivered what is likely to be the last budget before Britain goes to the polls this autumn, grim faces behind him suggested Tory MPs did not think it would be enough to overturn the Conservatives’ dismal figures.
Even with some tax cuts, the problem the government has is the tax burden, which is still at its highest level since 1947.
And nobody really thinks it will go down rather than up under Labour.
On top of that, cold hard numbers are hard to spin.
The fine print of the budget shows an extra £186.6 billion in hidden taxes over the next five years: more than double the combined savings of £105.4 billion from the combined tax cuts last November and today.
Also painful is the OBR’s prediction that net migration will remain at around 300,000 indefinitely, and the Tory tax changes have actually worsened Britain’s labor woes.
As more and more people are pushed into higher tax brackets, it turns out that fewer people are trying to work harder.
But the shape of the Tory manifesto is looming, with the abolition of National Insurance clearly set to emerge as a major election issue.
Double taxation of wages through NICS and income tax has long been a flaw in our complex tax system, but its complete abolition would be incredibly expensive.
In addition, Hunt has reduced it by 4 pence, to 8 pence in the pound in earnings in just six months, which is why he is considering the possibility of a complete abolition of earnings over five years.
But with huge bills, massive benefit payments and sustained public spending coming in the way of national security, is this loss of revenue to the Treasury really credible?
I suspect that we will spend a large part of the election campaign arguing about this.
Hunt peppered his hour-long speech with attacks on opposition parties and countless name checks – real name checks – for key marginal seats the Government hopes to save in the election.
Given the number of times he has mentioned his own seat in Surrey and the vicious Lib Dem attack that could unseat him, it is clear that the chancellor is as concerned about his own seat as anyone else’s.
It was the tiniest budget I can remember, with countless interventions from the Deputy Speaker after Labor had labored its way through the measures.
If this is the form of the pre-election campaign, it will be a very long year…
In a boost to policing, more Violence Reduction Units are to appear across England and Wales thanks to an extra £75 million in crime-fighting funding.
And £230 million will be spent on introducing time- and money-saving technology for officers – including drones to stop crime.
The move should free up time equivalent to 20,000 employees over the course of a year.
Mr Hunt fired the first gun in a months-long election campaign when he announced the Spring Budget.
The chancellor hinted at Tory ambitions to scrap national insurance entirely.
His speech in the Commons also branded Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer as an enemy of business – but he stole a number of his policies.
A loophole for mega-rich “non-doms” to avoid paying some UK tax has been reformed to raise £2.7bn for the Exchequer.
And the windfall tax for oil and gas giants has been extended through the end of the decade.
Labor has already said it will do the same and earmarked the money for other projects, leaving a black hole in shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves’ spending plans.
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Fuel duty costs in the UK between 2002 and 2024
The opposition said it thought the sweeteners meant Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was eyeing a general election in May – but No 10 last night messed about the snap election.
The Chancellor, however, disappointed Tory MPs by refusing to cut income tax or unfreeze the thresholds at which it is paid.
This is despite Mr Sunak promising to reduce the base rate to 19 per cent by the end of this parliament.
And despite the second cut in as many months, it won’t stop the tax burden rising to 37 percent of GDP by the end of the decade.
Until 2028-2029. there will be 2.7 million more higher rate taxpayers and 600,000 more additional rate taxpayers.
There will also be a net increase in tax receipts of £19.7bn.
Mr Hunt told MPs now was the time to help families with “permanent cuts” in tax.
He said: “Of course, interest rates remain high while we reduce inflation.
“But because of the progress we’ve made, because we’re meeting the Prime Minister’s economic priorities, we can now help families not only with temporary support for the cost of living, but also with permanent tax cuts.
“We are doing this to provide much needed help during difficult times.
“But also because conservatives know that lower taxes mean higher growth.
“And more growth means more opportunity, more prosperity and more funding for our precious public services.”
The NI cut comes after a similar 2p cut in last year’s autumn report, which was seen in January’s pay packets.
Mr Hunt described Labor as a party that holds back business with bureaucracy and red tape.
He said: “It will destroy jobs with 70 new burdens on employers, cut opportunities by halving new apprenticeships and risk family finances with new tax-raising spending.
“Instead of going back to square one, our plans mean more investment, more jobs, more productive public services and lower taxes – sticking to our plan in the budget for long-term growth.”
Mr Hunt has warned the public that a Labor government will increase borrowing to pay for public services – with a huge bill that will remain outstanding for decades to come.
He added: “An economy based on sound money does not pass its bills to the next generation.”
Shadow chancellor Mrs Reeves claimed the budget was the “final chapter” of fourteen years that have left the country worse off.
She said: “Taxes are still going up, shop prices are still going up and mortgages are higher.
“Nothing Jeremy Hunt said today changes that. It’s time for change.
– It’s time for elections.
Sir Keir Starmer slammed Rishi Sunak and Mr Hunt as the “smiling brothers of decay”.
He told the Commons: “The chancellor, walking into this chamber in a recession and telling the working people of this country that everything is on the right track. A crisis? What kind of crisis? Or as the captain of the Titanic and the former prime minister herself might say, an iceberg ?What iceberg?
“Smiling as the ship sinks, laughing at the brothers of decline, dreaming of Santa Monica or maybe just a quiet life in Surrey without having to fund my own choices.”
Meanwhile pundits have given 2p NI the thumbs down, saying it is unlikely to be enough to reverse the Tories’ dire ratings.
But Mark Kent, of the Scotch Whiskey Association, welcomed the alcohol tax freeze, saying: “Supporting whiskey is good for the industry, the economy and dram-loving consumers.”
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