Workers will be hit with an extra £17bn of income tax through 'stealth raids' in Healey's first Budget
John Healey's Budget scraps standing charges on gas bills and extends the VAT holiday on electricity to July, though the gas change will not take effect before 2027.John Healey's Budget hands HMRC sweeping new powers to deduct overdue tax directly from bank accounts without taxpayer agreement.
Chancellor John Healey raised taxes by around £7bn and increased borrowing while delivering a £2.6bn energy support package — £100 payments to roughly 20 million households in council tax bands A to D this winter. The Institute for Fiscal Studies dismissed the statement as "a raft of fiddly measures but very little that will move the dial on growth," while CBI chief executive Rain Newton-Smith said it "did not meet the scale" of economic challenges facing the UK.
Farage called the Budget a 'retail Budget aimed at an early general election' and predicted polling would come in May.
The Budget allocates £150m for new large-scale asylum accommodation sites, prompting Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp to accuse Labour of having 'no intention whatsoever of stopping illegal immigrants or deporting them.'
