Stop stealth taxes... make rich pay for crisis they created

UNITE members, along with many other workers, are "the men and the women who work hard every day in all parts of our country" that Rachel Reeves spoke about in her Budget speech.

- SHARON GRAHAM

The government said they would “back” them. But the extension of stealth taxes in the Budget has, instead, picked the pockets of workers, while the super-rich have been left all but untouched.

Last year, the government chose to keep the Tory freeze on income tax thresholds in place but promised not to extend it beyond 2028. Last month they broke that promise and kept thresholds frozen until 2031.

This will hit almost everyone's take home pay. A worker on £25,000, whose pay goes up by RPI inflation, would pay close to £1,000 extra in tax over the next five years. If the Budget had ended the freeze that would not apply.

That's a tax hike for the lowest paid of 1.5%.