British taxes are set to rise. That will come as no surprise to anyone who has been studying the public finances closely. The choice facing any chancellor now would be the same: increase taxes or preside over a further deterioration in health, education and other core government functions. Tax rises have not only been entirely predictable but also widely predicted.
The politics surrounding those tax rises has been equally plain to see. Rachel Reeves will argue that the new Labour government had no plans for tax changes beyond those already set out in its election manifesto but that – having examined the books – it has been forced to take “tough choices” owing to the failures of the previous Conservative administration. Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt will respond that this is all preposterous: there have been no nasty surprises and Labour always intended to increase taxes after entering office. The political battle is not so much over the coming tax changes themselves as over the question of who is really responsible for them.
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