Red Rachel’s RECORD £75bn tax bomb: Reeves has hit Britain more durable than any Chancellor since figures started – in stark distinction to large cuts throughout Thatcher period

Rachel Reeves has announced more tax rises than any other Chancellor in at least six decades.

An historic database of Budget measures shows Ms Reeves has been ‘scored’ as adding £75.1billion a year to the burden on hard-working Brits.

The staggering tally – racked up in just 18 months in No11 – is far ahead of her nearest competitor for the dubious distinction.

That was fellow Labour politician Gordon Brown, whose fiscal statements added up to an extra £62.1billion.

Rishi Sunak came in third with £54.9billion of tax rises announced, as he struggled to cope with the fallout from Covid and the Ukraine war. Norman Lamont’s increases in the 1990s were assessed as £41.7billion and George Osborne‘s £41.6billion. 

The OBR maintains figures for all the tax policies ‘scored’ at fiscal events since 1970, adjusted for GDP growth to the present day. 

The numbers do not account for measures raising more or less than anticipated – and miss out some smaller changes up to the watchdog’s creation in 2010.

However, they give the best indication available of the size of packages announced by Chancellors.

The database shows Ms Reeves is responsible for two of the 10 biggest tax-raising Budgets on record.

The Chancellor’s November 26 package ranks seventh, while her debut Budget last year is rated as the second largest.

At the other end of the scale, Nigel Lawson was scored as the biggest tax cutter. He announced £104billion a year of reductions during the Thatcher years.

Another Conservative, Anthony Barber cut the burden by the equivalent of £97.9billion in the early 1970s. 

Most of that came in the single 1972 Budget known as the ‘dash for growth’ – which was followed by years of spiking inflation and desperate efforts to cut spending. 

Alarmingly, Ms Reeves has refused to rule out coming back for more tax in the future, despite pushing the burden to new high as a proportion of GDP.

Shadow chancellor Mel Stride said: ‘After just 18 months at the Treasury, Rachel Reeves is already making records as the biggest tax raising Chancellor in modern British history.

‘When Conservatives said at the election that Labour would raise taxes, they said we were lying. Now they won’t even rule out coming back for yet more tax rises. They are taking the tax burden to historic highs to pay for even more welfare spending.’

Ms Reeves’ November 26 raid was ‘scored’ by the OBR as bringing in an eye-watering £29.8billion a year by 2030-31.

That was only marginally less than Tory Geoffrey Howe’s Spring 1981 plans – estimated at £30.3bn in today’s terms. 

Labour predecessor Denis Healey’s Budget in Spring 1974 brought in £30.8billion, according to the database.

Previously Ms Reeves’ first Budget had been assessed as the biggest tax-raiser ever.

But in a crumb of comfort for the Chancellor, it has now been classed as marginally smaller than Norman Lamont’s Spring 1993 bumper raid following the Black Wednesday sterling crisis. 

That appears to be down to GDP revisions of the last few years affecting the historical measures more than the recent ones. 

Lord Lamont’s Budget is now scored at £43.6billion, while the 2024 Reeves event is put at just over £43billion.