However, there is one thing that rings even falser than Reeves and Keir Starmer insisting that they did no wrong. That is the ridiculous sight of the Conservatives now trying to claim the moral high ground and pose as the party of moral probity and political consistency.
The Tories might think they are on an easy winner by attacking Reeves and Starmer for breaking their election pledges. Do they seriously imagine that the British public has forgotten 14 years of Conservative governments trashing promises, raising taxes, piling up national debt and saying one thing and doing the opposite?
Listen to Kemi Badenoch slamming Labour’s plans to raise welfare spending by another £9bn as “a Budget for Benefits Street” based on “hiking taxes to pay for welfare”. Nice try, Kemi. But the fact is the welfare spending surged under the Conservatives, rising from £211bn in 2013/14 to £297bn in 2023/4, according to estimates.
|  | Benefits giveaway to swallow up most of tax raidWelfare spending forecast to hit £16bn by 2030 – after £26bn Budget tax rises are unveiled |
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| | How Britain’s £300 billion welfare bill became untouchableThe cost of benefits is out of control, but it will take guts and immense political skill to wean the UK off its... |
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In refusing to tackle the unaffordable burden of Britain’s bloated welfare state – including handing billions in benefits to foreign nationals – Labour is only carrying on where the Conservatives left off. Little wonder that, by the time the Tories were kicked out last year, interest payments on the Britain’s huge national debt had already reached £100 billion a year – around twice what we spend on defence.
| | Foreigners claim £1bn a month in benefitsEight weeks of payments to households with foreign national enough to wipe out winter fuel cut savings |
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Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, also hammered Reeves’s Budget as “a huge tax grab” and a “clear breach” of Labour’s manifesto pledge not to raise taxes on working people. Given Reeves stuck another £26bn on tax, he might have a fair point, were it not for the small matter of the previous Conservative governments loading the British people down with the highest tax burden since the 1940s.
As for Labour overtaxing businesses, Badenoch assured us only last month that “we want lower taxes on businesses. We want more businesses”. Then why, businesses might ask, did the last Tory government raise the main rate of corporation tax from 19 per cent to 25 per cent in April 2023? Higher taxation has inevitably meant less money for companies to invest in jobs and growth.
| | Scrap the rise in corporation taxMr Hunt has little hope of achieving his dream of making Britain 'the next Silicon Valley' if he punishes success |
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The truth is that, under Conservative governments from 2010 to 2024, over a quarter of a million companies went into insolvency in England and Wales. So much for the “we want more businesses” Tory Party.
Then there is the big issue of energy prices, with Badenoch announcing a “Cheap Power Plan” to cut bills for British families. This, we should remember, is the same Conservative Party which, when in power, increased the energy price cap and presided over record household bills.
Most importantly, it was the Tories who introduced the crazy net zero targets which have left Britain with some of the highest energy prices in the world and driven small and family businesses and farms to the wall. Ed Miliband covering the British countryside with solar panels is only a continuation of the net zero zealotry of Boris “make Britain the Saudi Arabia of wind” Johnson
| | Wind power for every home within 10 years, Boris Johnson to pledgePlan is part of 'green industrial revolution' that Prime Minister believes could create millions of jobs over th... |
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When it comes to probity, Stride has said that Reeves’s “downbeat briefings were all a smokescreen” and has asked the Financial Conduct Authority to probe “possible market abuse” over the pre-Budget briefings and leaks.
This might be more convincing if the Conservatives hadn’t faced similar accusations over Liz Truss’s 2022 mini-budget, when Labour asked the FCA to investigate whether leaks had enabled the markets to short the pound.
And so it goes on. It is no exaggeration to say that we watched Conservative governments repeatedly saying one thing and then doing another for 14 years. Inconsistency and promise-breaking have been almost the only constants in Conservative policy.
The conclusion I draw from this today is clear: we should never trust the Tories. Do not allow the failed party of the past to reinvent themselves as the supposed solution to the problems that they created in the first place.
Only Reform UK, the party I lead, can be trusted to keep our promises to reduce the burden of the welfare state, slash red tape and stand up for alarm clock Britain: the hard-working, tax-paying people who are the backbone of the economy.
Kemi Badenoch has raised one important question. In September, when she told the oil and gas industry that the Tories would no longer support the Energy Profits Levy, she conceded that, “you may ask, ‘why should we believe you when Conservatives introduced this levy’?”
Indeed. Why should we believe a single word they say?
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However, there is one thing that rings even falser than Reeves and Keir Starmer insisting that they did no wrong. That is the ridiculous sight of the Conservatives now trying to claim the moral high ground and pose as the party of moral probity and political consistency.
The Tories might think they are on an easy winner by attacking Reeves and Starmer for breaking their election pledges. Do they seriously imagine that the British public has forgotten 14 years of Conservative governments trashing promises, raising taxes, piling up national debt and saying one thing and doing the opposite?
Listen to Kemi Badenoch slamming Labour’s plans to raise welfare spending by another £9bn as “a Budget for Benefits Street” based on “hiking taxes to pay for welfare”. Nice try, Kemi. But the fact is the welfare spending surged under the Conservatives, rising from £211bn in 2013/14 to £297bn in 2023/4, according to estimates.
Benefits giveaway to swallow up most of tax raid
Welfare spending forecast to hit £16bn by 2030 – after £26bn Budget tax rises are unveiled
How Britain’s £300 billion welfare bill became untouchable
The cost of benefits is out of control, but it will take guts and immense political skill to wean the UK off its...
In refusing to tackle the unaffordable burden of Britain’s bloated welfare state – including handing billions in benefits to foreign nationals – Labour is only carrying on where the Conservatives left off. Little wonder that, by the time the Tories were kicked out last year, interest payments on the Britain’s huge national debt had already reached £100 billion a year – around twice what we spend on defence.
Foreigners claim £1bn a month in benefits
Eight weeks of payments to households with foreign national enough to wipe out winter fuel cut savings
Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, also hammered Reeves’s Budget as “a huge tax grab” and a “clear breach” of Labour’s manifesto pledge not to raise taxes on working people. Given Reeves stuck another £26bn on tax, he might have a fair point, were it not for the small matter of the previous Conservative governments loading the British people down with the highest tax burden since the 1940s.
As for Labour overtaxing businesses, Badenoch assured us only last month that “we want lower taxes on businesses. We want more businesses”. Then why, businesses might ask, did the last Tory government raise the main rate of corporation tax from 19 per cent to 25 per cent in April 2023? Higher taxation has inevitably meant less money for companies to invest in jobs and growth.
Scrap the rise in corporation tax
Mr Hunt has little hope of achieving his dream of making Britain 'the next Silicon Valley' if he punishes success
The truth is that, under Conservative governments from 2010 to 2024, over a quarter of a million companies went into insolvency in England and Wales. So much for the “we want more businesses” Tory Party.
Then there is the big issue of energy prices, with Badenoch announcing a “Cheap Power Plan” to cut bills for British families. This, we should remember, is the same Conservative Party which, when in power, increased the energy price cap and presided over record household bills.
Most importantly, it was the Tories who introduced the crazy net zero targets which have left Britain with some of the highest energy prices in the world and driven small and family businesses and farms to the wall. Ed Miliband covering the British countryside with solar panels is only a continuation of the net zero zealotry of Boris “make Britain the Saudi Arabia of wind” Johnson
Wind power for every home within 10 years, Boris Johnson to pledge
Plan is part of 'green industrial revolution' that Prime Minister believes could create millions of jobs over th...
When it comes to probity, Stride has said that Reeves’s “downbeat briefings were all a smokescreen” and has asked the Financial Conduct Authority to probe “possible market abuse” over the pre-Budget briefings and leaks.
This might be more convincing if the Conservatives hadn’t faced similar accusations over Liz Truss’s 2022 mini-budget, when Labour asked the FCA to investigate whether leaks had enabled the markets to short the pound.
And so it goes on. It is no exaggeration to say that we watched Conservative governments repeatedly saying one thing and then doing another for 14 years. Inconsistency and promise-breaking have been almost the only constants in Conservative policy.
The conclusion I draw from this today is clear: we should never trust the Tories. Do not allow the failed party of the past to reinvent themselves as the supposed solution to the problems that they created in the first place.
Only Reform UK, the party I lead, can be trusted to keep our promises to reduce the burden of the welfare state, slash red tape and stand up for alarm clock Britain: the hard-working, tax-paying people who are the backbone of the economy.
Kemi Badenoch has raised one important question. In September, when she told the oil and gas industry that the Tories would no longer support the Energy Profits Levy, she conceded that, “you may ask, ‘why should we believe you when Conservatives introduced this levy’?”
Indeed. Why should we believe a single word they say?