In January 2000, Tony Blair made a surprise pledge that the UK would reach the European average for health spending. Gordon Brown, the then Labour chancellor, was so incensed, it was widely reported, that he told Mr Blair: “You’ve stolen my fucking budget.” Mr Brown had good reason to be peeved. He wanted praise for rescuing the health service, and public support for his tax-and-spend policies. Yet when, in June this year, NHS England published its welcome long-term workforce plan, there was pin-drop silence about how the £50bn scheme would be funded. Paul Johnson of the Institute for Fiscal Studies says that “arguably the next 15 effing budgets have been stolen”.
The politics of the Tory party lie behind the veil currently being drawn over fiscal decisions. Rishi Sunak has been either chancellor or prime minister during a parliament that has seen UK taxation at its highest level since records began 70 years ago. Mr Sunak’s decision in 2021 to freeze income tax thresholds helped the Treasury to reap about £100bn a year in extra taxes.
