The Budget delivered by Rachel Reeves on Wednesday, the first by a Labour chancellor in 14 years, dominates the front pages.
The Times says, external it delivered the biggest rise in tax and borrowing for a generation and takes the tax burden to the highest level on record. It also homes in on the rise in borrowing, which it says is the biggest surge outside a crisis for more than 30 years.
In its editorial, it says there is much to criticise about the budget, chiefly that forecasts from the Office of Budget Responsibility suggest it won’t deliver the long-run growth that the chancellor had promised.
“Nightmare on Downing Street” is the Daily Telegraph’s headline, external. The paper says Reeves has crushed hopes of higher growth with a record “tax raid” that will damage living standards. It argues that millions of workers will now face two years’ of stagnant pay as the tax raids squeeze businesses and staff, adding that the Budget was characterised by “mendacity” and broken election promises.
The Sun continues, external the seasonally scary theme, calling the budget a Halloween horror show – complete with a picture of the chancellor as a pumpkin. But it praises the freeze on fuel duty, an issue it had campaigned on. “At least she kept it down at the pump-kins,” it quips.
As far as the Daily Mail, external is concerned, the budget is a “£40bn tax bombshell for Britain’s strivers” that has prompted the country’s growth prospects to take, in its words, a dive. It accuses the chancellor of using a sleight of hand to pilfer people’s wallets.
The Guardian greets, external the first Labour budget in 14 years with the headline: “Return of tax and spend”. It describes the measures as a “massive package”. The chancellor, it suggests, is gambling on voters being happy that the government is raising money to try and patch up, in the paper’s words, Britain’s crumbling public services, notably health and schools.
