GB News sparked uproar as they discussed Andy Burnham’s possible tax hike this autumn (Image: Getty)
Andy Burnham suffered another major blow on GB News as Brits shared their views on the potential tax rise in the upcoming autumn Budget. On Tuesday (August 25), the Prime Minister refused to rule out the tax hikes because he “won’t be unrealistic” about the “challenging” state of public finances. The Labour leader added that he would take a “careful approach” to the economy, and defended his previously announced cost-of-living pledges as funded spending commitments.
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On the breakfast show, hosts Ellie Costello and Alexander Armstrong welcomed Fraser Myers of SpikedOnline onto the programme to react to the latest development. The broadcaster certainly didn’t mince his words, as he warned: “He says he doesn’t want to be unrealistic with the economy, which is a new spin we haven’t heard before.
“The economy is in a really dire state, growth has slowed, borrowing has gone up, it’s jumped up by £700million in the last month or so, which is a much higher jump than expected. We have the Iran war, we have increasing borrowing, all of these things eating away at the Chancellor’s fiscal headroom, and it’s gone down by.”
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He went on to point out the dwindling funds for the new Labour Government, which will inevitably play a big part in the possible tax rises. The journalist continued: “Rachel Reeves had a fiscal headroom of £22billion, John Healey in this budget looks like he’s only going to have £15billion to play with, and that means it’s going to be harder and harder to make the nonsensical fiscal target, which is never going to be met, of not paying for day-to-day borrowing by the end of the day.”
Mr Myers went on to outline three options the Government can take to improve the economy, as he warned Brits that there’s “a lot of pain to come.” He explained: “The Government has three options: it can cut spending, it can raise taxes, or it can boost growth, and I think we know that it’s going to fall on the taxes because I don’t think we’ve heard anything from Andy Burnham about boosting growth; he’s more interested in spending money.
“The rhetoric doesn’t yet reach the reality, and I think we are yet to see any serious plans from Andy Burnham for growth. We’ve seen lots of tinkering on small measures, and even though they are marginal, they do cost money in the grand scheme of things, so paying for that is going to be difficult, and there’s going to be a lot of pain to come.”
It didn’t take long for viewers to flock to X – formerly known as Twitter – to voice their concerns online, as one user penned: “It was always going to happen, it’s Labour FFS.” Another agreed: “It’s hitting the poor taxpayers again. You know, the workers who keep this country going. Do you ever see the PM and MPs refusing a pay increase? No. They’re earning money for doing sweet FA.”