Latest Budget: Sky News pundits stunned by Labor Party’s ‘huge’ tax plans

The headline figure in the Chancellor’s Budget is a £40 billion increase in taxes, driven mainly by a higher-than-expected £25 billion increase in employers’ national insurance contributions.

As you can see in the chart below, this is the biggest tax budget for more than three decades – since the budget presented in 1993 by John Major’s Tory government.

And this, of course, will increase the tax burden than it is now.

It rose significantly in 2020 as a result of the pandemic, and today’s announcements will push it even higher to a record level.

By the end of Parliament in 2029 it will also be higher than expected in the Labor Party manifesto.

The chancellor said the tax rises – along with more government borrowing – were needed to fund public services, which she said the Conservatives had left in a terrible state.

The chart below shows how much borrowing would rise based on today’s Budget compared to the last Tory Budget in March.

But here’s a chart with the numbers not as high – and certainly not as high as the government would like.

Growth has become mission number one, but the forecasts below suggest it will be fairly modest.