The biggest tax cuts since the 1980s were announced last week, but also published were official forecasts confirming that the tax burden was rising to a postwar high, thanks to far larger tax rises already in train. So why is a government that wants to cut taxes raising them?
For Tory backbenchers, an oddly popular answer is Jeremy Hunt (they seem weirdly convinced he is a tax-and-spend socialist). Labour, meanwhile, argues that taxes are up because the government is useless. Persistently weak growth isn’t helping, but a change of government won’t magically see taxes plummet.
