Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has accused Rachel Reeves of launching an “assault on aspiration” after the Chancellor unveiled £26billion in tax rises in her second Budget.
Ms Reeves, who last year raised £40billion through tax hikes, announced Treasury tax grabs on pensions, savings and homes.
The Chancellor is expected to raise £8.1billion by freezing income tax thresholds until April 2031, taking the UK’s overall tax take to an all-time high of 38 per cent of GDP.
Speaking at a press conference in Westminster, Mr Farage warned the Chancellor’s announced proved Britain is now trapped in an “economic doom-loop”.
He said: “This really was the ‘Alice through the looking glass’ Budget, with a healthy dose of socialism thrown in.
“Yes, words mean what I say they mean, not what they really mean.
“She talks about growth and yet the projections for the next few years, growth is continually being downgraded.
“They literally talked repeatedly about cutting debt and yet even in their first year they’ve borrowed £21billion more than they were forecast to borrow before they’ve even started.
Nigel Farage has blasted Rachel Reeves’s new budget as an ‘assault on aspiration’
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“And the parts I found really difficult to swallow she talked about supporting entrepreneurs, not understanding that entrepreneurial people are generally deciding not to stay in this country, let alone invest in this country … None of what she really said today was true.”
The Reform UK leader went on to warn Ms Reeves had launched an “assault on aspiration” and claimed the Cabinet “literally doesn’t understand business”.
During her second Budget, the Chancellor also took aim at Mr Farage and Reform UK.
Addressing MPs in the House of Commons, Ms Reeves said: “We are ramping up sanctions on Russia and we are freezing known Russian assets.
The Reform UK leader said Britain was now trapped in an ‘economic doom-loop’
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“And let me be clear, I don’t mean the Honourable Member for Clacton.”
The Chancellor also blasted Reform UK over its plans to cut public spending by £100billion, claiming Mr Farage had not put forward a fully-costed plan.
However, Mr Farage swatted away Ms Reeves’s attacks, invoking the late Queen in response to Labour’s Russia attack and suggesting cuts to public spending are needed.
The Chancellor’s tax hikes also coincide with taxpayers coughing up more in cash to cover Britain’s ballooning benefits bill.
Labour is pushing ahead with plans to abolish the two-child benefit cap