Sky News political editor Beth Rigby has stunned fans with her review of the new Labour budget as she claimed “It is the biggest budget I have ever covered.”
Beth has slammed the announcement of major tax changes as she supported leader of the opposition Rishi Sunak in his view that “this was not what was laid out in the manifesto.” The political expert also slammed Prime Minister Kier Starmer in her analysis as she pointed out that he denied to her that there would be any tax rises.
The Chancellor has in fact confirmed that there will be a £41 billion hike in taxes as announcements were also made regarding the benefits and welfare system. The budget also included big plans for the NHS, as well as changes to stamp duty, a rise in the cost of smoking, vaping and alcohol where punters will see their pints drop in price.
READ MORE: Budget 2024: All the key changes and how they affect you – from tax to pensions and stamp duty
Giving her stark review Beth stated: “I think this was the moment where we saw the real Labour government and compare and contrast a Labour government that was painfully cautious in the run up to this election talking about really quite menial tax rises and spending commitments compared with today and a government in victory that is bold and confident about the decisions they are making.
“To put it into context this budget in terms of tax and spend is £74 billion in spending by the end of this parliament. £41 billion pounds in tax rises. I have done a number of budgets and this score card… I have never seen anything like it and I’ve done this for 15 years. It’s the biggest budget I’ve covered.”
“It is incredibly definitive in terms of a very kind of Labour budget in terms of big tax and big spend. I think the issue here is while Rachel Reeves talked there about choices Rishi Sunak gave the counter argument which I think will now be chewed over, ferociously actually, which is this was not laid out in the manifesto. This was not what the Labour government implied.
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“When I asked the Prime Minister at our leaders debate in Grimsby ‘are there any tax rises beyond this?’ he said ‘there are no plans to raise taxes,’ and now look where they are.”
She continued her analysis adding: “It’s a massive tax on business, £25 billion on businesses in terms of increases and changes to employers national insurance. There’s £5 billion on wealthier people in terms of changes to inheritance tax and capital gains tax.
“These are massive tax rises that were not signposted in the manifesto and the Labour government will try and pin the blame on the Conservative party, but this is so enormous, you can’t help but come out of this budget and think this was a Labour government that had a different agenda in the run-up to the election that it didn’t level with the British people about. I think that is going to be the conversation in the coming days.”