During the General Election, Labour promised they would not raise taxes on working people. A few weeks ago, when I stood in at Prime Minister’s Questions, I asked the Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner MP, what her definition of working people was. She wouldn’t accept that millions of hard-working small business owners - the publicans, the plumbers, the electricians, the shopkeepers, the cafe owners - count as hard working people.
And the results were seen in the Budget that followed. The price of Labour’s hike to national insurance will be felt by every small business in Hertsmere. In order to fund this, they now face the agonising choice of whether to put up prices, cut pay or cut already squeezed profit margins. The sad fact is that all of us will pay the price in higher inflation, fewer jobs and less investment.
Many constituents have also been in contact with me concerned regarding the introduction of VAT on private school fees. Following the announcement in the Budget, we know that 6,555 pupils in Hertsmere will be hit by Labour’s Education Tax. This could mean larger class sizes for state schools and disruption for parents, teachers and children. Whilst Labour clearly committed to this in the election that they won, it saddens me that they vindictively pressed ahead with imposing it mid-way through the school year rather than waiting until next September to govern families time to adjust.
As you will no doubt have seen, Labour try to blame this on a ‘black hole’ that they inherited. This is simply not the case. The number they use consists of the flaky cobbling together of the normal spending pressures any government or indeed business faces between Budgets; and the price of their decision to agree to significant public sector pay rises, particularly for the rail unions and doctors. It’s no wonder that the Office for Budget Responsibility’s report declined to back up this fictional black hole.
I love this country and want it to succeed. I wished the new government well because I wanted it to succeed for the sake of the country. This Budget is not the way to go about it.
