Rachel Reeves’ spring statement is exactly what we expected – full of empty promises, while laying the blame on Trump, Putin, previous Tory governments, writes Richard Tice.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is blaming everyone but herself (Image: PA)
Following intense criticism over her autumn budget – which included £40 billion in tax hikes, a reduction in the tax threshold from £9,100 to £5,000, a 50% increase in bus fare caps, and sharp rises in capital gains tax – her spring statement delivers yet more gloomy news.
Rather than acknowledging the consequences of her policies, she today pointed the finger at almost everyone – but herself.
For those still oblivious to Labour’s shortcomings, just look to the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) for answers.
The OBR has halved the UK’s economic growth forecast to just 1% this year, while government borrowing is expected to exceed previous projections by £10 billion. Additionally, it gives Reeves a 50-50 chance of meeting her own fiscal rules.
Yet magically the OBR forecasts higher growth from 2026 onwards despite higher taxes and more costs. THE OBR is delusional and this administration is a disaster for the UK. They are an outright attack on hardworking British people.
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Labour has failed on every front. Since taking office, real GDP per capita has fallen. No matter how much they try to cook the books by importing millions of people from abroad, the average person in Britain is getting poorer.
Meanwhile, their much-touted pledge to build 1.5 million homes remains empty rhetoric, making little difference in combating the housing crisis. Why? Because the OBR also (optimistically) projects that Britain will see an additional 1.5 million new migrants by 2030—on top of the 1.2 million Labour has already allowed in over the past two years. Nowhere in their budget is border security made a priority, despite it being a top concern for the British public.
Housing prices are set to rise from £265,000 to £295,000 by 2029—not due to a housing shortage, but because Labour has allowed net migration to spiral out of control.
Labour’s policies have driven up costs, crushed growth, and left British citizens struggling to afford homes of their own. Instead of delivering real solutions, Reeves offers only deflection and failure.
Despite Reeves’ repeated claims that she will not raise taxes on working people, the OBR forecasts that the tax share of the economy will reach a historic high within the next three years.
With only £9.9 billion in fiscal headroom, if economic forecasts shift even slightly, what taxes will she be forced to raise in the autumn budget?
Thanks to this Labour government, the downgraded growth forecast has pushed the tax burden to a record high. The OBR predicts that taxes will rise from 35.3% of gross domestic product (GDP) to a historic 37.7% by 2027-28.
The overall tax take remains on course to rise to 37.6%, a level last reached just after the Second World War and never sustained.
Her promises of welfare cuts to encourage employment have also fallen flat. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) has dismissed these cuts as “unlikely to incentivise work as much as the government states.”
This is a country that, just a year ago, was growing at the fastest rate in the G7. Britain is home to a tremendously talented population and vast untapped potential. Yet successive Conservative and Labour governments continue to prioritise net zero, killing free speech, and indoctrinating our youth over pursuing true economic growth.
To turn this around, we must abandon net zero, lower energy costs, and take full advantage of drilling opportunities in the North Sea and rolling out new small modular nuclear reactors. No country can succeed with energy prices as high as ours.
To put this in perspective: the United States has energy prices some 50% lower than the UK and its economy is growing at 3%. There is a direct correlation between energy prices and economic growth.
When Reform UK is in government, we will scrap net zero, lower prices for consumers, and prioritise the hardworking British people. We will run a country that listens to the demands of Britons above all else.
Our mission is to revive economic prosperity, tackle the illegal immigration crisis, and eliminate sleaze and corruption from political life.Only Reform UK will make people better off.
Richard Tice is Reform UK’s deputy leader and the MP for Boston and Skegness
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