'Smash and grab raid' on pay packets

This week’s Budget has been blasted by Dumfriesshire MP David Mundell as a’smash-and-grab"raid on the pay packets of ordinary working people throughout Dumfries and Galloway.

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The MP spoke out after Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves unveiled a vast £26 billion hike in personal and business taxes - ripping up pledges she'd previously made not to increase income tax paid by workers - and also raids on pension payments, dividends, property taxes and others.

There was also cold comfort for the local agricultural economy with no U-turn on Labour's Family Farm Tax, which strips traditional farms of essential reliefs they have previously enjoyed.

David Mundell MP said: "Any small relief local people may have felt at the news fuel duty won't rise between now and next September will have been wiped away by the realisation that duty will be going up after then for the first time in 15 years.