Chancellor Rachel Reeves was accused by Rishi Sunak of “broken promise after
broken promise” and having “fiddled the figures” in her first Budget. The
former prime minister and acting Tory leader led the criticism of Labour’s
maiden fiscal statement in the House of Commons on Wednesday as he claimed Sir
Keir Starmer and Reeves had “not been straight with the British people” about
tax ahead of the general election. Sunak told MPs the Labour administration had
embarked on a “spree of tax rises they promised the working people of this
country they would not do”, citing increases to employers’ national insurance
contributions, capital gains tax, inheritance tax and stamp duty. He also
alleged Labour had “squeezed” Britain’s poorest pensioners, awarded trade unions
“inflation-busting handouts” and allowed welfare spending to spiral “out of
control”. 
Lashing out at Reeves for making “misleading claims about the state
of the economy” she inherited from the Conservatives, he branded her assertions
“nothing but a cynical political device”. Sunak said that when he left office
in July, the UK was the fastest growing G7 economy. He urged the chancellor to
“stop blaming everyone else and take responsibility” for her fiscal choices. In
his last act as outgoing Tory leader — with his replacement due to be announced
on Saturday — Sunak accused Reeves of having decided to “let borrowing rip” and
trying to “cover up that splurge by fiddling the fiscal rules”. Haranguing
Labour as a party led by people with “no experience of business”, he said the
government was unleashing “a tidal wave of anti-business regulations” alongside
tax rises.
Dame Meg Hillier, Labour chair of the House of Commons Treasury
select committee, launched a counter-salvo at Sunak, accusing him of “cheek” and
“chutzpah” in accusing Labour of sparking “fear, foreboding and uncertainty”.
She hit back that it was the Tories’ so-called “mini” Budget of 2022 that
“plunged this country into crisis, pushed up the mortgage rates of our
constituents and is still leaving people living in great hardship”. Hillier
welcomed the Budget but said she was “disappointed” that so much had leaked in
advance and insisted it was “not a normal practice”. The boost to the NHS was
“staggering and welcome” amid a “tight financial situation”, she said. Please
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Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, Tory chair of the Commons public accounts
committee, praised Reeves for setting out details of compensation for victims
of the infected blood and Post Office Horizon scandals, but urged her to ensure
such schemes are “quickly paid out”. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said
the public wanted a “clean break” with the “chaos and decline” of 14 years of
Tory rule, but said he feared the Budget “won’t deliver” the hope, urgency and
promise of
a fair deal that people are seeking.
Davey vowed his party would
“hold the government to account” on its NHS plans, as he warned the extra
funding “won’t touch the sides — it’s just a standstill in a crisis”. He also
criticised the “unfair” increase in employers’ national insurance contributions.
Richard Tice, deputy leader of right-wing populist party Reform UK, said the
Budget would make people poorer: “per person, per family, per small business,
per community”. He said Reeves’ plans meant “higher taxes, more borrowing and
lower growth” and would hurt hard working British people. Tory MP Sir Edward
Leigh, the father of the Commons, warned Labour had embarked upon a “massive
expansion of tax and spend”, which was a fiscal programme that tended to
“gradually impoverish countries”. Dame Harriett Baldwin, Tory MP on the
Treasury select committee, echoed Sunak’s allegations that Labour had “broken
promises” with its tax rises, warning the move would harm “trust in
politicians”.
