Sir Keir called the move, which is expected to raise £2.7bn a year, a “short-term, cynical political gimmick” – adding there was not a “more obvious example of a government that is totally bereft of ideas”…reports Asian Lite News
Keir Starmer has attacked the budget as “the last desperate act of a party that has failed” as he branded Jeremy Hunt and Rishi Sunak “the Chuckle Brothers of decline”.
The Labour leader criticised the chancellor for presiding over a recession and the highest tax burden in 70 years and accused Mr Hunt of using the budget to “give with one hand and take even more with the other”.
The chancellor announced a 2p cut to national insurance and abolished the current tax system for non-doms, which has been a Labour policy for some time.
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Sir Keir called the move, which is expected to raise £2.7bn a year, a “short-term, cynical political gimmick” – adding there was not a “more obvious example of a government that is totally bereft of ideas”.
The Labour leader said Hunt was a chancellor who “breezes into this chamber in a recession and tells the working people of this country that everything’s on track”. “Crisis? What crisis? Or as the captain of the Titanic and the former prime minister herself might have said, iceberg? What iceberg?” he joked.
“Smiling as the ship goes down, the Chuckle Brothers of decline, dreaming of Santa Monica or maybe just a quiet life in Surrey not having to self-fund his election,” he added. Sir Keir said Britain deserved better than a “Rishi recession” and claimed the Tories had “maxed out the nation’s credit card”.
And calling for the government to confirm a May general election, he added: “It’s time to break the habit of 14 years – stop the dithering.” Hunt unveiled his budget – expected to be the last before the general election later this year – after speculation in the media pointed towards a possible cut in income tax to woo voters.
But the chancellor resisted calls from Tory MPs for income tax to be reduced and instead stuck to bringing down national insurance further from 10% to 8%.
Hunt said that, combined with the reduction in national insurance in the autumn statement last year, the average worker would be £900 better off. However, both Labour and the Liberal Democrats have argued that frozen income tax thresholds effectively cancel out the benefit of the national insurance cut.
The Office for Budget Responsibility, the independent public finances forecaster, has also said living standards will remain below 2019 levels until 2025-26.
In his statement responding to the budget, Sir Keir said his party would support the cuts to national insurance because it had “campaigned to lower the tax burden on working people for the whole parliament”.
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