Scared of what labour will do

[Wantachangefor2024]

Is anyone else terrified of what labour will enforce. The tax on farmers. Will they means test pip? Will they tax state pension more? What else will they do and where will it all end. They ruthlessly without no care took away the winter fuel allowance. Means testing and taxing state pension would massively impact my family

Nope.

I think the WFA cut was an own goal, raised a billion or so but cost Labour a great deal of credibility, yes there is the issue of handing the allowance to wealthy pensioners but you could make that argument over the state pension too.

Farms IHT? well over due, they are still getting a very good deal.

I'd give Reeves a strong 7/10, Hunt a 1/10, his cut to NI was done to damage Labour, no concern for the country.

You stated in your pp that the January tax take was £5b higher than predicted. That is not true. The OBR predicted £20b surplus, they received £15b. So £5b less. This info is widely available.

As for the NI cuts, labour could have easily promised to scrap it and still be elected. I agree with finding the money for compensation which is why I ignored it.

I'm assuming this was for me?
You will never find me 'purring' at a failing economy whoever is in power. Taxing and borrowing the way labour has will damage us all, including the public sector.

The income tax personal allowance is at the state pension level currently.

'I think the WFA cut was an own goal, raised a billion or so but cost Labour a great deal of credibility, yes there is the issue of handing the allowance to wealthy pensioners but you could make that argument over the state pension too'.

I agree with you on this point 100%

Pensioners, like all people, are taxed on their income at the moment, but with a higher personal allowance and no NI like younger people. There has been no comment or suggestion that this might change.

Outside of employer NI contributions, I wasn't aware that Labour have changed income tax?

Flat rate state pension for those that retired post April 2016 is £11,502.40. So still under the threshold.

Pensioners pay no NI, but do not have a higher personal allowance for income tax, what makes you think that?

Eta: they used to have a higher PA, but the 2010 coalition gvt abolished it.

Yes, me 🙋‍♀️

Because that is what Labour do. They attack views that they don’t share, they attack the tories no matter what they say or have said. It is all they know how to do, pitiful really.

At least Starmer has stopped calling the opposition Prime Minister now.

Ah yes. What did Reynolds say? That he was a solicitor but had to step down for politics? He wasn’t solicitor more an office clerk. Lying twit. The lot of the lying Labour party we have ‘in charge’ need a thorough check. 🤢

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y0pr34y58o.amp

How embarrassing.

Where did I mention income tax?

I said Tax Take NOT surplus... which i did address in my pp, the two are very different, tax receipts were higher than predicted, record highs...... the surplus vanished because of higher borrowing...

You still haven't said how you would pay for any of this...

Reeves made choices, the Tories would face the same woes, they may have made different choices but the pain and consequences would just be felt elsewhere...... cuts cannot be made fast enough for the day to day shortfall.

"Taxing and borrowing the way labour has will damage us all"

@Katypp ": When will Labour supporters own the mistakes their party has made instead of blaming to Tories for everything that's going wrong?"

OK- I'll bite. Labour can't possibly have changed e needs changing yet, so that why saying "remember the last 14 years" is reasonable. People seem to have expected everything to be fixed on day 1.

And I am happy to acknowledge mistakes. What particular mistakes do you want me to acknowledge?

Sorry - apologies, yes, I misread re PA!

Again, I did not mention income tax.

Quoting the Chancellor "this budget raises taxes by £40bn".

Well, all the extra things the govt is on the hook for need paying... or we give soldiers etc less pay, we don't settle the PO scandal and lets delay the blood compensation scheme until even more die.....

Hunt never set aside anything for any of this, in fact then cut NI... which is why we got the budget we saw.

I think we're splitting hairs here.

The ONS said that taken together, self assessed income and capital gains were provisionally estimated at £36.2bn, and the highest January receipts since monthly records began, although 10.1% lower than OBR forcasts.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/feb/21/rachel-reeves-given-smaller-than-expected-15bn-tax-boost-to-uk-finances

As for how I think they should raise money, she could take her boot off the throats of businesses for a start to incentivise risk and growth. They could stop spending eye-watering sums on Ed Miliband's pet projects. They could have put up income tax across the board and still won the election. They could have ditched the employee NI trap set for them by the tories. They could have pinned a red rosette to a donkey and still won the election.

Much of this debate could be had after any new government comes in. Labour, like any government, have to fix things and will win at some things and fail at others.

But what’s so gruesomely spectacular about this government is its astonishing hypocrisy. WFA reduction isn’t wrong; broader welfare cuts will happen and will be necessary. So why Labour’s loathsome casting of Tories as wicked, wicked people when they had to try to hold down spending to balance the public finances - even attacking the Tories for a WFA cut that never happened!

The jetting around the world hypocrisy is another eye-popper. How could Reeves have had the brass neck to poke fun at Sunak about it in the budget? Extraordinary lack of self-awareness.

I think it’s the self-delusion, the swallowing all the moral high ground nonsense they’ve spouted for so long, that’s resulted in the freebie greed and the widespread CV lying.

Hypocrisy, spawned by the weird, cultish belief in themselves as better than others, will bring Labour down.

Hypocrisy, spawned by the weird, cultish belief in themselves as better than others, will bring Labour down.

@Rummly yep it doesn't help them

But what’s so gruesomely spectacular about this government is its astonishing hypocrisy.

Yes

It certainly isn’t at the level of the old basic pension which is less than £9k per year. Those reaching state pension age from 2016 receive around £11.5k, Still below the personal allowance level.

The personal allowance is the same whatever your age. There’s no discount for pensioners.