If it moves, the government will tax it, writes James Hanson

Our taxes were already at the highest level since the Second World War, but in today’s budget, Rachel Reeves has decided to go even further. It is as unwise as it is unfair.

When Labour won the last election, we were told their number one economic mission was growth. Yet within months, Reeves imposed a jobs tax on British business - by hiking national insurance contributions for employers. You didn’t need an economics degree to work out what the impact would be. Companies have stopped hiring, growth has stalled and unemployment has risen.

Then today, in an act of staggering fiscal sadism, the Chancellor has repeated the same mistake and raised the tax burden again. The freeze to income tax thresholds has been extended - meaning 10 million people will be paying 40% tax within a few years. A tax bracket originally designed for the highest earners will soon ensnare millions of hard-pressed workers.

To make matters worse, taxes will also rise on property, pensions, savings, fuel, having a flutter - even electric vehicles and hybrids! Almost nothing is free from this Chancellor’s clutches.

Rishi Sunak was right to warn voters at the last election that voting Labour would lead to their taxes going up. But even the former PM can’t have expected Rachel Reeves to do it quite so quickly, and to quite such a drastic extent.

And what is the Chancellor planning to use our hard-earned cash for? A further expansion of the welfare state. Scrapping the two-child benefit limit may play well with backbench Labour MPs, but most voters deem it fundamentally unfair.

It’s not rocket science - if you make work less attractive (through taxing income) and make worklessness more attractive (by raising benefits), don’t be surprised if productivity falls, unemployment rises and growth dries up.

The worst part of all is that I suspect this won’t be the last time Reeves, or another Labour chancellor, reaches for tax rises during this parliament. It is all this government seems to know. Businesses large and small have stopped investing and expanding. The super-rich are fleeing the UK. Even many middle-to-high earners are voting with their feet and moving to places such as Dubai to avoid Labour’s punitive tax regime.

In the process, our tax revenues will fall, demand on the state will rise, and the economic doom loop of tax-and-spend will continue.

Labour is taking Britain out of business, and ordinary workers are picking up the bill. Rachel from Accounts should be sent to Keir in HR and given her P45.

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Listen to James Hanson on LBC on Sunday mornings between 4-7am.

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