UK Politics

Ahead of Rachel Reeves’ looming Budget, Independent readers have weighed in on Britain’s public finances – and largely agree that tax rises may now be unavoidable if essential services are to be maintained.When we asked what the chancellor should prioritise, many stressed the need for fairness, arguing that income tax, national insurance (NI), and other levies should be applied progressively, protecting those on lower incomes while asking more of higher earners.Closing loopholes and tackling tax avoidance were widely highlighted, alongside calls for greater government efficiency.Readers also urged broader systemic reforms: removing private money from politics, boosting public service productivity, and ensuring that any tax rises are transparent and part of a long-term plan rather than a short-term fix.Long-term policy decisions – from Thatcher-era tax cuts to recent NI changes – were cited as factors constraining today’s options, leaving the public frustrated with declining services, soaring energy bills, and failing infrastructure.Overall, our community agreed that while no one enjoys paying more tax, honesty, fairness, and careful planning are essential if the UK is to navigate its financial challenges without undermining public services.Here’s what you had to say:DOGE-style cuts won’t workThe books cannot be balanced by making DOGE-style cuts. Whatever fantasies Farage may conjure up, there are not 90,000 surplus civil servants waiting to be fired, with zero impact on public services.We can’t continue to print or borrow money without trashing our credit rating and/or further increasing our £120 billion-a-year interest bill.So tax rises are inevitable. Reeves will simply be doing what every chancellor since the 2008 crash has failed to do, knowing full well it is the right thing to do. In a way, it’s pretty gutsy and almost admirable.Get a free fractional share worth up to £100.Capital at risk.Terms and conditions apply.Go to websiteADVERTISEMENTGet a free fractional share worth up to £100.Capital at risk.Terms and conditions apply.Go to websiteADVERTISEMENTNo, I don’t expect to be personally thrilled about paying more. But how long are we content to acquiesce in declining public services?SteveHillWhy did you not give this speech a year ago?I heard all of Rachel Reeves’ speech and all the questions asked. I really wish I had been there and had the chance to ask the following question:“Why did you not give this speech a year ago, and why did you simply not reverse the 2p cut on national insurance that Jeremy Hunt recklessly gave away before the election? That would have solved the £20 billion black hole and not caused all the issues with businesses and employment.Of course, the answer is obvious. No one is going to break a key manifesto commitment within months of being elected. However, I really wish she had done so. She would be in a far better position politically today.clivelosebyNo surpriseThis should come as no surprise, should it? Rishi Sunak warned us before the last elections.Given the position the economy is in, some things have to give. One of them is income tax, which will need to go up, and we have to accept that reality. In return, I would like to see a committed plan on fiscal discipline, economic growth, and slashing of waste. I also want to see a reduction in energy costs by reining in the green levies.KrispadIncremental bandsBack in the 1980s, when Mrs Thatcher reduced the top rate of income tax from 60 per cent to 40 per cent, economists warned it was unaffordable. Given that all our public services are now on their knees as a result of decades of spending cuts to fund that reduction, it proves they were right.But with a £47 billion tax gap, any chancellor having to increase taxes to plug a £40 billion black hole has a moral responsibility to invest additional ring-fenced resources to close that gap and tackle the shadow economy so legitimate businesses can compete on a level playing field.Increasing income tax seems inevitable, but it needs to be done transparently. Personal allowances should be increased in line with inflation, and far more gradual incremental rate bands introduced, starting with a lower rate, followed by more rate bands rather than a leap from 20 per cent to 40 per cent. The top rate on the highest portion of wealth should be increased to at least 50 per cent, which would create a fairer distribution of the tax burden proportionate to individual income levels.VickiGCutting MPs’ pay and perksWe can make a start on saving by cutting MPs’ and Lords’ pay by 10%, capping their bottomless expense accounts, stopping them owning multiple houses which they “flip” when they want them done up, looking at them having only taxpayer-owned accommodation, and ending the subsidised food and drink in the Houses of Parliament.Then stop renovations to Parliament – such as £9 million for a door – move Parliament out of London into a new purpose-built building with flats available for overnight stays, and reduce the legislature by at least 10 per cent, if not more. End the payment to past PMs “for expenses” and cut the number of unelected, unaccountable SPADs, if not eliminating them altogether. But of course none of this will ever happen while we let MPs make up their own rules.ListenVeryCarefullyComparing UK to MexicoI emigrated in 1990, and since then, it seems to me the UK has done poorly, with Brexit being an appalling act of self-harm. I live in Mexico, a developing country. The UK is supposed to be a developed country. If so, why does the UK not offer:Free university education Free childcare Free prescriptions Free broadband All of which are policies of the government here.Heisenberg97I feel targetedI have worked for over 40 years, paid off my mortgage, and am working on getting a decent-sized pension pot. I have never claimed any benefits. I feel like I am now a target. I should have been less responsible and spent more. I assume that is what the younger generation is also thinking, as it will be their pensions/contributions that will be taxed for longer than mine will be.Straight as a dieClosing tax loopholesOur tax system needs a very big dose of medicine. We have had too many years of loopholes to pacify the rich, allowing them, with clever sleight of hand, to avoid many of the taxes our legislation permits to be collected. We need fairness. Rachel must close all those loopholes before she raises our taxes.Just SayingRaising taxes fairlyRaise taxes fairly. Increase personal allowances, then raise percentages incrementally on the upper brackets. Increasing the basic personal allowance means the poorest don’t get hit by the increases further up the chain.SRKfanWe will run out of things to taxWithout major reform of the most significant costs to the government (i.e., our money), eventually we will run out of things to tax.The welfare system (beset with fraud), mass immigration of largely non-net tax contributors and their dependents, and a public service which is at the bottom of the developed world productivity tables.You can ignore all of these for the next year or two, but then where do you get the tax ££s from?Lambeth1000Some of the comments have been edited for this article for brevity and clarity.Want to share your views? Simply register your details below. Once registered, you can comment on the day’s top stories for a chance to be featured. Alternatively, click ‘log in’ or ‘register’ in the top right corner to sign in or sign up.Make sure you adhere to our community guidelines, which can be found here. 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Reform UK’s flagship council has been mocked as having “more clowns than Billy Smart’s circus” as councillors met for the first time since footage of a chaotic online meeting emerged.Several members of the party in Kent were suspended after footage of the meeting was leaked last month, in which council leader Linden Kemkaran could be seen berating backbench councillors when they questioned her.The administration was confronted by opposition leaders during a chaotic meeting at Kent County Council on Thursday, where they were branded a “laughing stock”.Harry Rayner, leader of the Conservatives, said the council had “more clowns on display since I saw Bill Smart’s last circus”.He was joined by leader of the Liberal Democrats in Kent, Antony Hook, who said the council is in “political crisis” and that he had heard of “bets being made” about whether the administration would last until Christmas.He urged councillors to “not act in a way that becomes a punchline on Have I Got News for You”.Harry Rayner, leader of the Conservatives, said the council had “more clowns on display since I saw Bill Smart’s last circus” More

Former prime minister Gordon Brown has called for the “total abolition” of the two-child benefit cap, putting pressure on ministers to do more to tackle the “scar” of child poverty in Britain.Speaking at a conference to mark the 60th anniversary of the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), the former Labour premier and chancellor shot down proposals to water down the controversial policy, instead calling for its complete removal.Pressure has increased on ministers to abolish the measure in the approach to the upcoming Budget and publication of the government’s delayed child poverty strategy.Campaigners at CPAG say the policy pulls 109 children in to poverty a day, and that without action, the number of children in poverty in the UK will rise from 4.5 million will rise to 4.7 million by the end of this parliament.The cap, introduced under Conservative welfare reforms, blocks parents from claiming the child element of universal credit worth £292.81 a month for a third or subsequent child born after April 2017.Gordon Brown speaks at a conference to mark the 60th anniversary of the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) More

David Lammy has been told to “get a grip” on the prisons crisis as the justice secretary continues to come under pressure after two prisoners were mistakenly released from a London jail.The shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick told the BBC that he has no confidence in Mr Lammy, and said that the deputy prime minister’s handling of questions about the matter at Prime Minister’s Questions this week was “a disgrace” and “a total dereliction of duty”.Police are working to track down Algerian national Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, who was mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth just over a week ago on 29 October. They are also searching for another inmate, Billy Smith, 35, who was accidentally released from the same prison in southwest London on Monday (3 November).Mr Lammy is under fire after he failed to address the matter when standing in for Sir Keir Starmer in the Commons on Wednesday, when he repeatedly failed to tell MPs whether any more asylum seekers had been mistakenly released from jail since the case of Epping hotel migrant Hadush Kebatu.Kaddour-Cherif is not an asylum seeker. Mr Jenrick told Radio 4’s Today programme: “It took six days for the prison service supposedly to even become aware that this had happened and inform the Metropolitan Police, who are now a week behind in the manhunt to find [Kaddour-Cherif].Justice secretary David Lammy is under pressure following the mistaken release of two prisoners More

The Conservatives have accused Labour of treating motorists “like a cash machine” amid reports that drivers of electric vehicles could face a new pay-per-mile tax in Rachel Reeves’s Budget. The chancellor is considering a plan that will see drivers of electric cars charged 3p per mile, according to The Telegraph. The scheme is set to kick in from 2028, by which time as many as six million people will be driving electric cars. The 3p charge would equate to around £12 on a journey from London to Edinburgh, according to the newspaper, which also reported that drivers will have to estimate their own usage rather than it being tracked electronically. Shadow transport secretary Richard Holden said: “Britain cannot afford a spineless government that, rather than standing up to its own backbenchers to stop the exponential growth in welfare payments, instead treats motorists as a cash machine to plug the holes Rachel Reeves and Sir Keir Starmer are creating.” “Families are not an ATM for Rachel Reeves, yet under Labour, everyone who relies on a vehicle is being lined up for another shakedown.”It comes as the Treasury is facing a fall in fuel duty revenue as more people make the switch from petrol and diesel to electric cars. Chancellor Rachel Reeves will deliver the Budget later this month More

Rachel Reeves has been warned that she must slash taxes again before the next election if she breaks her key manifesto pledge and hikes them in the Budget. Sir Tony Blair’s think tank also said that any tax hikes such as raising VAT or income tax must be done in tandem with pro-business policies to break Britain’s “tax-and-spend doom loop”. The warning comes after the chancellor put the country on notice that manifesto-busting sweeping tax rises are coming later this month, saying during an unprecedented pre-Budget address that “we will all have to contribute”. The Tony Blair Institute has now called for any major tax rises to be temporary, warning Labour should move to “targeted tax cuts” before the next election “once growth strengthens and public service reforms deliver results”. The group also called for the chancellor to bring businesses who had been “bruised” by last year’s Budget “back onside” with measures that move beyond “the caution of the government’s first year in office”.Rachel Reeves has said ‘each of us must do our bit’ and warned there are ‘hard choices’ ahead More

Any significant tax increases proposed by Rachel Reeves must be “temporary” and paired with reforms to aid businesses “bruised” by the last Budget, Sir Tony Blair’s think tank has warned. A report from the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) has called on the Chancellor to “bring businesses back onside” by moving beyond “the caution of the government’s first year in office” in her upcoming November 26 Budget.Ms Reeves has already fuelled expectations of higher taxes by refusing to commit to maintaining Labour’s manifesto promises not to hike income tax, national insurance, or VAT. The TBI insists that any such measures must be accompanied by bold, growth-boosting, pro-business reforms. These, it argues, are essential to “break Britain’s tax-and-spend doom loop” and allow the government to roll back the tax rises as the economy improves.It rejected the government’s proposal of giving workers “day one” protection against unfair dismissal, recommending instead a six-month qualifying period.In its paper, the TBI backed “decisive” action such as hiking a major revenue-raising levy instead of more incrementalism that “creates pain but rarely momentum”.Chancellor Rachel Reeves has already fuelled expectations of higher taxes More