Friday, 08 November 2024

Leftist Labour Gov't Cuts Winter Energy Aid to Millions of Pensioners, Preps Mass Tax Hikes

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Leftist Labour Gov’t Cuts Winter Energy Aid to Millions of Pensioners, Preps Mass Tax Hikes
Members of the opposition frontbench and shadow cabinet of Sir Keir Starmer, Leader of theUK Parliament / Maria Unger

The new leftist Labour Party government in Britain announced plans to slash winter energy benefits for around 10 million pensioners while preparing massive tax hikes to fund soaring spending driven largely by mass migration.

In her first major address to Parliament on Monday, Chancellor Rachel Reeves — the head of the Treasury Department — confirmed the high-tax, high spending agenda of the new Labour government.

Reeves claimed that she “did not want to have to do this” but asserted that the previous Conservative government of Rishi Sunak had left a £22 billion “black hole” in Britain’s finances, the Daily Mail reports.

This deficit was exacerbated by illegal immigration and the asylum system, the overspend on which rose to £6.4 billion this year alone. The chancellor also pointed to more spending on the National Health Service (NHS), funding for the war in Ukraine, and highway and road maintenance.

To meet the spending costs, Reeves said that the government would scrap energy bill support this winter for potentially up to 10 million pensioners.

She said that all those who do not receive pension credit will have their support cut, despite the ongoing energy crisis in the country. Reeves claimed this would save the government around £1.4 billion this year and a further £1.5 billion next year.

“This is not a decision I wanted to make, nor is it the one I expected to make – but these are the necessary and urgent decisions that I must make,” Reeves told the Commons.

While the government decided to scrap money for elderly people to heat their homes and despite concerns over fuelling inflation, Reeves committed to a 22 per cent pay rise for junior doctors to end the longstanding labour dispute.

Despite the country suffering under the highest tax burden since the Second World War, Reeves also suggested that billions more in taxes would need to be raised when she unveils her Budget at the end of October, with death taxes and capital gains likely being targets to fill the £16.4 billion gap left after the budget cuts announced Monday.

A Value Added Tax (VAT) will also be imposed on private school fees starting at the beginning of next year, however, anyone who is paying advance fees will be caught up in the scheme starting this week.

Reeves said: “When I arrived in the Treasury, on the very first day I was alerted by officials that this was not how much the previous government expected to spend this year – it wasn’t even close.

“This level of overspend is not sustainable. Left unchecked, it is a risk to economic stability and, unlike the party opposite, I will never take risks with our country’s economic stability.

“So, it therefore falls to us to take the difficult decisions now to make further in-year savings. The scale of the situation we are dealing with means incredibly tough choices.”

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