Sean Banks

I don't understand why, as a young, hardworking father with two children, a massive mortgage and few savings, I'm being asked to pay significantly higher taxes to subsidise a triple-locked pension and a bloating welfare bill. Seriously unfair.

Labour's choices will focus on the priorities of the British people: cutting the cost of living, cutting waiting lists, and cutting the national debt.

🚨 NEW: Rachel Reeves will announce an above inflation 4.8% rise to the state pension in the Budget

A $20 trillion concept proposes a 3,400-mile underwater tunnel connecting London and New York, potentially reducing a 7-hour flight to a 1-hour train ride.

I grew up in a household where every pound mattered. I know what it feels like for families trying to get to the end of the month. We’re rolling out free breakfast clubs nationwide to help families with the cost of living and giving every child the best start in life.

Britain is a great country to be a low earner in, and a terrible country to be a high earner

We’re also hearing that the OBR’s fiscal forecasts are better than expected, as result of stronger wage growth and therefore higher tax receipts. It means Rachel Reeves doesn’t need to put up basic rate of income tax to fill lower than expected fiscal gap: the politics of that were proving just too hard with disagreement w/in cabinet and anxiety among Labour MPs over manifesto breach. But - not least because she wants bigger than before headroom to protect against future risks - we’re still expecting chancellor to fill the gap through taxes. We were already expecting threshold freezes but now reducing thresholds for 40p and 45p rates also an option. Would drag more people into paying higher rates, esp given wage growth. Salary sacrifice schemes also likely to be hit. Ministers will hope that this will be seen as a fudge of manifesto promise - rather than blatant breach which would have made them first government in 50 years to hike basic rate of income tax.

NEW - we've data showing huge numbers of people reducing their income to avoid high marginal income tax rates. Not just at the £100k point (as previously reported). But at the £50k point:

🚨 NEW: UK unemployment has now hit 5%, its highest level since the pandemic

HMRC PAYE payrolls down 32k in Oct, biggest fall since Nov 2020