Few people of seriousness would have taken any pleasure in the news that Government borrowing had surged to £3.1 billion last month.
It was one of the highest figures for July since records began. But might Rachel Reeves have been secretly saying a prayer of thanks over yesterday’s disappointing numbers?
After all, the Chancellor has been itching for an excuse to soak Middle England with a raft of previously undisclosed tax hikes.
Since taking over at the Treasury, she has used every opportunity to claim Labour had been handed the worst economic inheritance since the Second World War.
She had, she said, discovered a surprise £22 billion black hole in Britain’s finances. Both of these are, of course, big fat fibs.
Rachel Reeves (pictured) has been itching for an excuse to soak Middle England with a raft of previously undisclosed tax hikes
Britain currently has the fastest growing economy in the G7. Unemployment is falling, inflation remains under control and another interest rate cut is on the horizon. The picture for the immediate future is bright.
Even so, the borrowing figures published by the Office for National Statistics make for grim reading. The Government finds itself in danger of running out of cash.
The £3.1 billion total (which the hapless crystal ball gazers at Labour’s beloved Office for Budget Responsibility badly underestimated again) was driven by public sector wages and welfare payments.
True, this increase can’t wholly be pinned on Ms Reeves, who only took office on July 4. But nothing the Government has done in the six weeks since will lower the spending figure. Indeed, its actions will almost certainly push it higher.
The cost of rewarding Labour’s union paymasters with massive wage rises for junior doctors, train drivers and others will alone run to more than £10 billion.
Of course, Sir Keir Starmer promised to turbocharge the economy – focusing on ‘growth, growth, growth’. What a joke that has turned out to be.
Since entering No 10, the Prime Minister has not only signed off lavish and inflationary pay increases for public sector workers.
Sir Keir Starmer (pictured) promised to turbocharge the economy – focusing on ‘growth, growth, growth’ – What a joke that has turned out to be
He has cancelled road projects, axed funding a new national ‘supercomputer’ intended to speed up vital research and plans to stifle businesses with productivity-crushing employment laws.
So to plug the spending gap and maintain public services, we must brace for swingeing tax hikes in Ms Reeves’ October Budget.
The Chancellor’s smokescreen pledge not to increase income tax, National Insurance or VAT leaves her plenty of scope to raise revenue in other ways including plundering private pensions and hiking capital gains and inheritance tax.
Yet all the evidence tells us such measures, intended to punish the aspirational and prudent, invariably depress revenues by deterring investment and saving.
Labour’s class-war socialism risks wreaking upon Britain the very economic devastation they claim to have inherited.
Lesson in class envy
For Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson (pictured), class envy trumps all other considerations
The Government insists it wants to drive up educational standards for every child. But by bringing in its spiteful tax raid on private schools halfway through the academic year, it risks doing the opposite.
Thousands of children whose parents can no longer afford the fees will be forced into the state system mid-term, school leaders warn.
This would cause huge disruption to pupils, teachers and schools. With lessons overwhelmed, Labour’s ill-thought-out and reckless policy will damage the education of many children.
But to Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, class envy trumps all other considerations.