George Osborne and Alistair Darling to forecast £30bn of revenue raising after a Brexit vote
Chancellor George Osborne is to team with his immediate predecessor to warn that a Brexit vote would trigger an emergency “Brexit budget”, with the aim of raising £30bn.
Osborne and former Labour chancellor Alistair Darling will today forecast tens of billions of spending cuts and tax rises if the UK votes to leave.
The pair will illustrate £15bn of cuts and £15bn of tax hikes, based on figures from the Institute of Fiscal Studies' assessment of the impact of a vote to leave on public finances.
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Osborne will say: “Far from freeing up money to spend on public services as the Leave campaign would like you to believe, quitting the EU would mean less money. Billions less.
“It's a lose-lose situation for British families and we shouldn’t risk it.”
The pair will today say the lower band for income tax would hit 22 per cent, while the higher rate would reach 43 per cent, inheritance tax would hit 45p, and alcohol and petrol duties would both rise by 5 per cent.
Similarly, they will say that £15bn in spending cuts would take £2.5bn a year from the NHS, £1.2bn from defence and £1.15bn from education.
Pensions would be cut by £2bn a year, while the home office, policing, transport and local government could all lose £5.8bn.
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Responding for Vote Leave, Steve Baker MP said that the Remain campaign was issuing "hysterical prophecies of doom".
"I am shocked that the Chancellor is threatening to break so many key manifesto pledges on which all Conservative MPs were elected. I could not support these plans to cut the NHS and increase taxes on hardworking families," Baker said.
"If we Vote Leave, we will be able to take back control of the millions we send to the EU every week and we will be able to invest in our priorities like the NHS instead.
The comments come after Leave campaigners promised to use current EU funding money to support industries currently receiving support from the EU."
Read more: 57 Conservative MPs threaten to bring down Osborne if he holds Brexit budget
13 government ministers and Conservatives yesterday pledged that every region, group and recipient of EU funding will continue to get that money after Brexit.
‘There is more than enough money to ensure that those who now get funding from the EU – including universities, scientists, family farmers, regional funds, cultural organisations and others – will continue to do so while also ensuring that we save money that can be spent on our priorities,” the group said.