Budget contains broken promises which will hit working people, Sunak claims
The outgoing Conservative Party leader was making his final appearance at the despatch box before stepping down.
Rishi Sunak has accused Rachel Reeves of delivering a Budget containing “broken promise after broken promise”, adding: “Working people will pay the price.”
The outgoing Conservative leader claimed Chancellor Ms Reeves has decided to “let borrowing rip” and tried to “cover up that splurge by fiddling the fiscal rules”.
Mr Sunak added that “never in the history of our country will taxes be higher than they are under this Labour Government” due to the Budget.
He also accused Ms Reeves and his successor as prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, of “damaging the British economy for political purposes” by their rhetoric and claimed it was “nonsense” to suggest Labour had inherited difficult circumstances.
Ms Reeves said she was taking steps to address the “black hole” in the public finances left by the Tories while pumping billions into schools and hospitals.
Her plans include hiking employers’ national insurance contributions and increasing capital gains tax, while also making changes to inheritance tax and stamp duty.
Speaking at the despatch box for the final time, Mr Sunak told Ms Reeves in the Commons: “Labour’s claims about their inheritance are purely ludicrous. These are her choices. So, stop blaming everyone else and take responsibility.”
He added: “Her decision to let borrowing rip make a total nonsense of her claims on the state of the public finances, because if they were truly in such a dire strait, as she has said, what we should have seen today was a significant reduction in borrowing to repair them, not the splurge that she has just unleashed.”
Mr Sunak said that borrowing and debt was due to be higher in every year of the forecast after the Budget.
The former chancellor said: “Now she has tried to cover up that splurge by fiddling the fiscal rules.”
Mr Sunak said the Conservatives had repeatedly warned during the general election that Sir Keir and Ms Reeves were “not telling the truth” when ruling out “tax surprises”.
He said: “Today the Chancellor and the Prime Minister have done what they were always planning to do, but chose to keep hidden from the British people.
“Far from reducing taxes, as a result of today’s Budget never in the history of our country will taxes be higher than they are under this Labour Government.”
Mr Sunak went on to claim Labour would be taxing people’s job, business, home and savings, adding: “You name it, they will tax it and that is exactly what they have done.”
In his final remarks, Mr Sunak said: “The Prime Minister has talked relentlessly about trust, but today’s Budget reveals above all that the Labour Party did not tell the truth.
“They said they wouldn’t fiddle the figures, they have. They said they wouldn’t increase borrowing, they have. They said they wouldn’t raise taxes on working people, they have.
“Broken promise after broken promise and it is the working people of this country that will pay the price.”
Labour MPs waved goodbye to Mr Sunak after he concluded his final remarks from the despatch box before stepping down as Tory leader.
During the debate, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey warned the Government is “ignoring the elephant in the NHS waiting room – the crisis in social care”.
He added: “I’m afraid today’s announcement on social care just won’t touch the sides.
“It’s only a standstill in a crisis, so unless we finally tackle this problem, unless we finally agree a long-term solution for social care, we will never end the crisis in our health service either.”
Sir Ed also argued that “raising employers’ national insurance is a tax on jobs and on people”.
Father of the House Sir Edward Leigh called the Budget a “massive expansion of tax and spend” and claimed that more people would be “dragged into tax”.
Meanwhile, Conservative former minister Dame Harriett Baldwin accused the Chancellor of campaigning “on a general election strategy that I believe was deliberately designed to mislead the electorate”.
Former Treasury minister Liam Byrne called for further increases to capital gains tax after he said the sales of super cars and mansions were at an all-time high, while the queues at food banks were still ever-long.
“We have a moral emergency in this country,” the Labour MP said.
