The biggest tax rises since 1993 and the highest overall tax burden since 1948. Labour warned that their first Budget in 14-and-a-half years would be a “once in a generation” event to match the scale of the challenge facing the country. Here are some of the key takeaways. Report by Brooksl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00Labour have not had this famous photo-op with the red box since March 2010.
00:06Back then, it was Alistair Darling standing outside 11 Downing Street.
00:11Ironically, the most expensive measure that day was a £600m promise
00:15to increase the winter fuel allowance for another year.
00:19No such promise this year from Rachel Reeves,
00:21although there would be big spending commitments,
00:24despite the new government's repeated references
00:27to the £22bn black hole in the public finances
00:30left by the previous Conservative government.
00:33The Chancellor's three primary aims in her first budget
00:36were to increase public sector investment,
00:38reform the debt fiscal rule,
00:40and thereby increase borrowing for investment.
00:43Their failure to assess the scale of the challenges facing our public services
00:48means that this budget raises taxes by £40bn.
00:54Indeed.
00:55It took a further 17 minutes for the Chancellor to reveal
00:58who would bear the brunt of this increase.
01:01We will increase the rate of employers' national insurance
01:04by 1.2 percentage points to 15% from April 2025.
01:09I have always said that if you make Britain your home,
01:12you should pay your taxes here too.
01:17So today I can confirm, we will abolish the non-DOM tax regime.
01:2494% of children in the UK attend state schools.
01:30To provide the highest quality of support and teaching that they deserve,
01:34we will introduce VAT on private school fees from January 2025,
01:39increasing the rate of air passenger duty by a further 50%.
01:44That is equivalent to £450 per passenger for a private jet.
01:51So say, California?
01:55But there were a couple of surprises.
01:57No extension to the freeze on the income tax threshold
02:00and no increase to fuel duty.
02:03There were spending boosts for health, defence, schools and housing.
02:07Because of the difficult decisions that I have taken on tax, welfare and spending,
02:14I can announce that I am providing a £22.6bn increase
02:19in the day-to-day health budget.
02:24Today I am announcing a total increase to the Ministry of Defence's budget
02:29of £2.9bn next year.
02:32£1.4bn to rebuild over 500 schools in the greatest need.
02:37We will increase the affordable homes programme to £3.1bn,
02:42delivering thousands of new homes.
02:46As well as a commitment to compensation in full
02:49for the victims of the Infected Blood and Post Office Horizon scandals,
02:53a total of £13.6bn.
02:56There's also a cut to draft alcohol duty by 1.7%,
03:01taking a penny off pints at the pub.
03:03And £0.5bn extra to fix an additional one million potholes each year.
03:09The government also committed funding to bring HS2 to London Euston Station,
03:13rather than the capital's western suburbs.
03:16I now call the Leader of the Opposition.
03:20The man who halted public funding to the project in October last year
03:24had this rebuff to Rachel Reeves' first budget.
03:27Time and again we Conservatives warned Labour would tax, borrow
03:32and spend far beyond what they were telling the country.
03:35And time and again they denied they had such plans.
03:41But today the truth has come out.
03:44Proof that they planned to do this all along.
03:48Sir Ed Davey had nodded approvingly at the Chancellor's announcement
03:51of an increase to the carers allowance,
03:54but voiced concern on the target of her tax rises
03:57and Britain's current relationship with Europe.
04:00Instead of taking up Liberal Democrat proposals to raise the money we need
04:04by reversing Conservative tax cuts for the big banks
04:08or asking the social media giants to pay a bit more,
04:11the Chancellor has chosen unfair tax hikes that will hurt small businesses
04:15and medium-sized businesses, the engines of our economy.
04:19But by ruling out important steps like a youth mobility scheme
04:23or key long-term goals like membership of the single market,
04:27the government is trying to grow our economy with one arm tied behind its back.
04:32Experts say the budget will ultimately have a negative impact
04:36on workers.
04:37Raising national insurance on employers will be mostly,
04:40in the medium term, incident on employees.
04:43In other words, mostly that will flow through into lower pay.
04:47Some of it might go into higher prices and some of it might go into lower profits,
04:52but mostly it will be in lower pay.
04:54The Prime Minister insists there is a brighter future ahead.
04:58The question is how far ahead and how much patience will voters have?