Keir Starmer is right. Farage’s tax cuts won’t deliver the support families really need
29 May 2025, 14:08
Families up and down the country are struggling to make ends meet with little reassurance that the prosperity and stability promised by Labour will be realised any time soon, particularly given the global challenges posed by Trump’s trade tariffs.
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In this context, Farage’s promises of quick and easy policies to cut taxes may sound appealing, but Keir Starmer is right about one thing: they are not economically sound and, beyond this, they will not actually help people with the things we really need and care about.
We want to know that when we have health problems, we can get an appointment with the doctor, and if we need a procedure or surgery, it will take weeks, not months. That if we have young children or grandchildren, they will have a guaranteed place in a nursery allowing both parents to work the hours we want to, if we want to. That if we or a loved one has a disability or becomes disabled, we will be able to get extra support to allow us to live a full life and contribute to society and the economy the way we want to. And that we will always have a roof over our head that is suitable and safe.
Years of austerity and political choices to curb public spending have sown a sense of inevitability that local communities, wider society and the economy (of which we are all part) can no longer support or sustain us.
But it doesn’t have to be like this. At the Women’s Budget Group, we have always argued that tax is the necessary contribution we all make to a society and economy that benefits us all. Because of the additional unpaid care and domestic work women do, women tend to work fewer hours in jobs that pay less. That means they pay less tax but rely more on the services and social security funded by taxation. But that unpaid work is a valuable contribution to the economy: nothing in the formal economy could happen without the unpaid work of raising children, caring for relatives and doing all the related domestic work.
A tax system that recognises and values unpaid care would ensure that income tax is increased gradually depending on earnings, would equalise tax on income from wealth and income from work, and would tackle the growing wealth divide in the UK by taxing wealth directly.
The United Kingdom is one of the richest countries in the world. We should have flourishing public services and a welfare system that treats all children equally and recognises people’s different needs and circumstances. Farage is right to call for an end to the two child limit and support for pensioners. However we won’t get there by cutting taxes, but by creating a fairer tax system and investing in the country’s foundations; rebuilding communities, society and the economy.
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Erin Mansell is the Head of Public Affairs at the Women's Budget Group.
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