'A BUDGET FOR BENEFIT STREET PAID FOR BY WORKING PEOPLE

KEMI Badenoch blasted a “Budget for Benefit Street” as Rachel Reeves yesterday hit hardworking Britons with a £26billion tax bombshell.

- BY MARTYN BROWN Political Editor

The Chancellor was accused of emptying their wallets in order to increase welfare spending to £406bn by 2030/31, trapping the UK in the biggest tax squeeze since the Second World War.

Her 43 tax rises reignited calls for her to be fired for breaking a promise that last year’s £40bn Budget had “wiped the slate clean” and would not require more hikes. Amid farcical scenes, Ms Reeves had to deliver her financial package to MPs after it had already been leaked. Her raid includes £12.7bn from extending the income tax threshold freeze by three years a "hammer blow" for OAPs.

A quarter of the working population will pay higher or top rate tax by the end of the decade and up to half a million more pensioners will be caught up in the tax net.

Ms Reeves will use the money to fund an extra £9bn on welfare - including the £3bn cost of abolishing the two-child benefit cap.

The Chancellor is also to hammer workers putting money aside for retirement with a near-£5billion raid on pension savings.

She confirmed plans for a cap on salary sacrifice schemes from April 2029. A £2,000 limit on the total employees can save each year without national insurance costs will give the Treasury £4.7billion this parliament.

Ms Reeves also announced higher taxes on betting, electric cars and large homes to plug her financial black hole.

Fuel duty will be frozen for five months until September but the 5p relief introduced by Rishi Sunak in 2022 will be phased out.

From April 2027 fuel duty is due to be uprated annually by retail price inflation.