Rishi Sunak says it’s easy to ‘duck difficult decisions’

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Plans set out by Rishi Sunak, 41, and his Treasury team are expected to plunge more than 1.2million people into the 40p higher tax band and an extra 1.5million into the 20p basic rate, according to The Telegraph. The House of Commons Library, who were commissioned to complete the analysis by the Liberal Democrats, also found the average British family will pay £430 more per year.

Londoners look set to pay an extra £510, people in the South East £500 and those in the East of England £470.

The smallest increase will be seen in the North East but residents there will still need to cough up £340.

The move is a far cry from the commitment made by Boris Johnson, 57, during the Conservative leadership contest in 2019 to raise the 40p threshold from £50,000 to £80,000.

The Liberal Democrats Treasury spokesperson Christine Jardine, 61, has since called on the Government to “drop this stealth unfair tax that will clobber families who are already feeling the pinch”.

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But the chairman of the Northern Research Group and Tory MP Jake Berry, 43, said Mr Sunak should “think again” on raising the tax threshold.

Mr Berry’s comments come amid reports of a Cabinet kerfuffle over tax hikes.

Mr Sunak was challenged by Leader of the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg, 52, over plans to increase National Insurance contributions by 1.25 percent.

The National Insurance rise is estimated to cost the average worker an extra £255 a year.

Mr Johnson, who supported Brexit in 2016, is also under pressure to deliver upon the pledge he made as a campaigner for Vote Leave to axe VAT on energy bills.

Energy bills look set to increase by as much as 56 percent once the price cap is increased to take into account the rise in cost of wholesale gas prices in April.

Paul Johnson from the Institute for Fiscal Studies said: “If you are someone on average earnings who is going to be hit by a tax rise as a result of the reduction of the personal allowance, and a tax rise because of national insurance, and an extra potential several hundreds pounds a year from fuel prices, then this could well be worse than the financial crisis.

“There’s going to be inflation of six or seven per cent and earnings not going up anywhere near that fast – so put those two things together and I find it hard to think of a March-April period which will have been quite so bad.

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“This is a combination of a big tax rise and falling real earnings.

“It’s not pretty.”

But a Government spokesman told the Telegraph: “The UK has the highest basic personal tax allowance in the G20 – and maintaining the threshold is a progressive approach to fund our world leading public services and rebuild the public finances following Covid.

“Higher earners will continue to contribute more, and nobody’s take-home pay will be less than it is now in cash terms.”

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