Big budget – for taxes, borrowing and spending

This will be a big budget.

Big tax increases, big borrowing, and big spending.

And politically significant – because it will determine the political landscape for the coming years.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves will pledge she will “invest, invest, invest” and will tell the Commons: “My faith in Britain is as bright as ever.

“More pounds in people’s pockets. The NHS is there when you need it.

“An economy that grows and creates wealth and opportunity for all.”

Notice the optimistic tone, after no shortage of gloomy ministers recently.

The government also stresses that it is “protecting workers’ payrolls” – which is code for National insurance paid by employersinstead of staff boarding, which is one of the biggest rows in the past few weeks.

We expect Labor to try to use this budget to try to open a political dividing line with the Conservatives – a bit like the line Gordon Brown tried a decade and a half ago – where they favor what they call “investment”, i.e. spending, and contrast that with what they will call “backsliding” which Provided by conservatives.

Unsurprisingly, Conservative leader Rishi Sunak – on his last big day in office before his successor is elected on Saturday – later strongly criticized the Chancellor.

“I’ve described National Insurance as a ‘jobs tax’ that ‘takes money out of people’s pockets,’” he says.

Worst of all, she said, the problem with National Insurance “is a tax imposed only on people who go to work and those who employ them.”

“Far from protecting workers, it would effectively raise the only major tax that specifically hits workers.”

The Liberal Democrats are expected to focus on social care and the availability of GP and dentist appointments in their budget response.

It has been 14 years and seven months since a Labor minister waved a red budget box on the doorstep of 11 Downing Street.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 was the day Alistair Darling’s third budgetwas introduced on the eve of an election campaign that Labor would lose.

By the way, what was the most expensive procedure that day? A £600m promise to increase the winter fuel allowance by another year.

Labour’s idea, which will last throughout the years of the coalition and the Conservatives in power, will be so It has been abolished for the vast majority of pensioners When Labor won again in July.

For 800 years, men have run the country’s finances. There have been 110 chancellors since Sir Richard Sackville’s appointment in 1559 – a Long continuous centuries of men – Among them are Henry Belson Legg (chancellor three times in the eighteenth century), and William Gladstone, who participated in four experiments in the nineteenth century.

Until Rachel Reeves is hired.

The Conservatives may have run their first three female prime ministers, while Labor currently has a record of zero, but the first Budget from the Chancellor of the Exchequer is a real moment in history.

So, what can we expect?

Well, the big stuff has been talked about beforehand, through nods and winks, official briefings, and unauthorized leaks.

There are tax increases, which are expected to include the employer National Insurance and inheritance tax.

There is a change in government Self-imposed debt rulesso he can borrow a lot.

There is a rise in Minimum wage.

There is money for Rebuilding schools In England.

And plans to New equipment for the NHSsuch as scanners and radiation therapy machines.

Expect a lot of talk from Rachel Reeves about what she’ll call “choices.”

Her team sees it as a “once in a generation” budget, with its scope allegedly commensurate with the scale of the challenge they face.

It is a symbol of a country in chaos and they believe it will cost a lot to fix it.

How far this solution might go – and whether billions of extra pounds of taxpayers’ money is the answer – are open questions.