Rachel Reeves warned autumn funds will ‘value jobs’ in damning verdict

It appears that most of you aren’t exactly jumping for joy following yesterday’s Budget, with Rachel Reeves confirming £40bn in tax rises thanks to the mismanagement of the previous Government’s finances.

But there were some reasons to be cheerful, with Britain’s first female Chancellor allocating £1bn to upgrading NHS buildings which are in “disrepair”, and £1.5 billion towards new hospital beds. She also announced an extra £22.6bn will be allocated to the day-to-day health budget while £3.1bn will be given for capital investment.

Ms Reeves also pledged £1.4 billion to rebuild more than 500 schools as part of a 19% real-terms increase in the Department for Education’s capital budget, along with £2.1 billion for school maintenance. The 5p cut to fuel duty will be kept into next year, with Ms Reeves saying it would be the “wrong choice” to increase it. She said keeping the cut and freezing it again will cost £3 billion.

A “flat rate duty” on vaping liquid will be introduced from October 2026. Taxes will also increase on tobacco. Meanwhile draught duty on alcoholic drinks will fall by 1.7%, meaning “a penny off a pint in the pub”.

Outgoing Tory leader Rishi Sunak blasted the Budget, saying it contained ‘broken promise after broken promise’. Yesterday’s financial rundown certainly brought in a wave of impactful changes that will resonate for each and every one of us, and Mirror readers didn’t hold back when we asked for your thoughts.

Were you happy with the Budget?

We asked if you were happy with yesterday’s Budget. A hefty 1,489 said no, they weren’t, while 368 said yes, they were happy with it and 231 said the Budget was ‘ok’. We also asked if you thought you were better off after yesterday, with 1,606 saying no they weren’t and just 319 saying they were.

Ahead of the Budget we asked:

Are you worried about the Budget? Yes – 2,597; No – 370

Can Labour save the NHS? Yes – 659; No – 2,315

Are you worried about winter fuel payments? Yes – 2,483; No – 505

Would you be happy to pay more tax? Yes – 570; No – 2,410

Which area of transport do you feel most needs to be improved where you live? Roads – 2,182; Buses – 563; Trains – 216; Cycling – 43.

‘Basically, it’s robbing the rich to help the poor’

Many of you commented on our Budget stories, here’s just a selection of what you had to say:

Spursman5: “I’m stunned at the hike on National Insurance for employers. Not only has Reeves increased the burden from 13.8% to 15% she’s also lowered the threshold when they start paying NI from £9,100 to £5,000. That’s a staggering £600 extra per year for each employee they have. Clearly that’s going to cost jobs, lower pay awards and even companies going out of business. The wise ones will probably shut the doors and move their operations abroad. This isn’t the ‘responsibility’ that she spoke of!”

LynxVegas: “Basically, it’s robbing the rich to help the poor. Plus, at the same time investing in public services such as the NHS, social care, education, roads, housing. Nothing wrong with that. It would be better to re-nationalise the family jewels – water, energy, transport, etc, and definitely take them out of foreign hands [owners and shareholders), then pass a law saying they can never be privatised again.”

Railwayboots: “After enduring the highest taxes since the last war, under the last Conservative government, we now have even more taxes thrust on us by this Labour government. The ‘working man’ will, despite Labour stating it won’t, definitely be affected by these massive tax rises.”

Bigbry1965: “In its verdict, watchdog the Office of Budget Responsibility, said living standards would not be not materially improved by the Budget, at one per cent lower than they would have been before. However, it said this was inevitable given the higher taxes being introduced to boost public spending.”

Licker: “She [Reeves] is giving the NHS a fighting chance after 14 years of trying to shut it down.”

Popster: “[The Budget won’t] encourage growth. We run a business but thankfully don’t need to employ other staff and definitely wouldn’t now, given all the additional costs that we would incur and I’m sure many other businesses will now think twice before expanding.”

There’s still time to take our poll:

If you can’t see the poll, click here

What do YOU think? Do you agree with our readers’ comments? Have your say in the comments below.