Rishi Sunak launched an impassioned attack on Chancellor Rachel Reeves in the House of Commons chamber this afternoon after she announced £40 billion worth of tax rises in her budget.
The former PM, speaking as Leader of the Opposition for the final time, took particular aim at Reeves’ repeated claims his administration had left a £22billion blackhole in the nation’s finances.
Sunak said: “They have fiddled the figures. They have raised tax to record levels. They have broken their promises. And it is the working people of this country that are going to pay the price.
“The Chancellor and Prime Minister have tried to say they had no choice, but be in no doubt, their misleading claims about the state of the economy are nothing but a cynical political device.
“Today’s situation is a world away from the genuinely bleak legacy that we conservatives inherited from the last Labour government.
“I understand the Chancellor’s shameless political motivations and why it suits her to cook up a false justification for her agenda.
“But today, the OBR has in fact DECLINED to back up her claims of a fictional £22 billion black hole.
“It actually appears nowhere in their report, Madam Deputy Speaker, and it is deeply, deeply disappointing that she has sought to politicise the independent OBR that should be above party politics.”
Today Rachel Reeves confirmed £40 billion worth of tax rises meaning Labour’s first Budget in 14-years contains the biggest levy-raising raid in cash terms since 1970.
It takes Reeves marginally ahead of Norman Lamont’s £38.5billion raid in 1993.
The NHS appears to be the biggest winner from Reeves’ announcement with day-to-day health spending increasing by a staggering £22.6billion.
Other economic headlines include a stamp duty raid, a rise in Employers’ National Insurance Contributions, a rise in Capital Gains Tax and a clampdown on inheritance tax rules for pensions and farms.
