Explainer-in-brief: Tax rises? Make it someone else’s problem
As the Autumn statement looms this week, Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt are trying, desperately, to do anything except break the manifesto promise not to raise income tax. But by freezing income tax thresholds people will wind up paying more anyway, without actually having to break the promise.
Elsewhere, there were suggestions council tax could be pushed up. This will strike a note of fear in local authorities, who will likely take this as a suggestion their budgets are likely to be cut even more.
It would mean the burden would be on them to raise more money for the many of the crucial services they fund – including social care – rather than on the central government.
Hunt promised over the weekend there would be no “rabbits out of the hat” – political code for measures to appeal to the base and make people feel good about the pain of spending cuts and stealth tax hikes.