TAXES are the highest in 80 years, bills keep climbing and fuel prices are surging.
So, what is Rachel Reeves doing? The Chancellor is adding more than 8p in new taxes to the price of petrol in the next 14 months.
Oil has already soared from $67 a barrel to more than $100 because of the US-led war in Iran — a rise as big as when Russia invaded Ukraine. And it’s predicted to go higher still.
So petrol prices have already risen by 5p a litre and are set to rise much, much further. Some experts fear they could reach upwards of 160p a litre.
Nobody in Britain voted for this war. But it’s going to be Brits who suffer.
It’s a hammer blow for family finances. And for millions of plumbers, electricians, carers, on-call nurses and delivery drivers, the price hikes mean a tough job just becomes impossible.
Small hauliers have already gone under in recent months due to sky-high taxes and rising fuel costs. More will follow, with more jobs lost.
Crises like this call for a national response. Reeves has one, but it will make petrol even more expensive.
Under her plans, tax on petrol will rise by 1p in September, another 2p in December and 2p in March next year. And she will charge you 20 per cent VAT on that tax rise. That is another penny on the price.
All in — 6p a litre. Between £3 to £4 of extra tax, every time you fill up.
And where is all this money going? On waste.
Billions of pounds of benefits for migrants and Foreign Aid are part of it. But much of it is going on loony green schemes.
The budget of Ed Miliband’s Net Zero department has doubled under Labour, with spending up £37billion over five years.
Around £8billion has been handed to Miliband’s new company, Great British Energy, which won’t even produce any energy.
It does not stop there. From concreting over gas wells to record amounts of green subsidies, he’s spraying taxpayers’ money all over the place.
Tens of billions of taxpayer money to indulge one man’s green fantasies.
All this money isn’t even cutting our energy costs — it’s driving them higher!
By shutting down our gas plants and shifting us to unreliable and expensive offshore wind, he is adding to the cost of generating our energy. It’s deranged.
We now have the highest energy costs in the world. Energy bills are £600 higher than they were in 2019. Enough.
The UK produces just 0.8 per cent of global carbon emissions.
If we stopped producing any carbon whatsoever — presumably by living in yurts and commuting by horseback — the world’s carbon emissions would remain essentially unchanged.
Meanwhile, China and India build new coal and gas power stations every day. With their cheaper energy, they then sell us back the products of the jobs we’ve exported to them.
If any of the Cabinet had ever worked in business, they would know that this is the road to bankruptcy.
There is a better way. Reform would cut £13.5billion in bonkers green schemes. And we’d use that money to do what Reeves should but won’t — cut your bills.
That starts with scrapping this crazed plan to increase petrol taxes at the worst possible moment.
If Reform was in Government, it would never have happened. We will spend the next few months trying to shame Rachel Reeves into cancelling it.
But if she doesn’t — whether because she’s running scared of the Greens or in hock to her far-left backbenchers — then Reform will reverse it in our first Budget. Because what she’s doing just isn’t fair.
It’s not right that people who work hard and do the right thing are left worse off because of wars they had nothing to do with. It’s wrong that working people are paying to fund green schemes that disproportionately benefit the better off.
And it’s plain outrageous that Reeves, who planned just £8billion in tax rises, has instead hiked taxes by eight times that.
Only Reform will end all this. Only Reform will be on your side. Only Reform will cut your bills. Because we understand who makes Britain work.
It’s people like Sun readers, who get up early and get stuff done. Who do what it takes to provide for their families. People who’ve been clobbered by this out-of-touch Government again and again.
It’s you who makes our country work, and it’s time politicians started working for you.
