The PM’s first budget is shaping up to be good news for the shirkers but bad news for the strivers as Labour prioritises benefits over hard work.
OPINION
PM Andy Burnham (Image: Getty)
For years now millions of families have struggled to keep their heads above water amid the flood of high prices rises. The weekly shop, monthly energy bills, and filling up the car are all now a massive hit to the wallet. Taxed at record levels there is nothing left to give for alarm clock Britain – those who get up and get on despite mounting financial pressures.
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If they think help is on the horizon in the shape of the first Budget under the Messiah without a Mandate Andy Burnham then they have another think coming. The Prime Minister – or more accurately Benefits Burnham – is planning a major intervention to slash energy bills for poorer households.
On October 28 Chancellor John Healey is set to announce an aid package of more than £1bn to help those struggling to pay their utility bills. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Especially if you are an out-of-work household on benefits, the bulk of which will be beneficiaries of discounts.
This is shaping up to be the most shamelessly socialist budget in decades. Tax rises to pay for additional spending are a given.
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Mr Healey, who brought down Keir Starmer by resigning as Defence Secretary in a row over spending, is rumoured to be preparing to announce an extension of the Warm Homes Discount – a £150 reduction to energy bills offered to households on certain benefits. And there’s more – a further £100 concession but funded by taxpayers rather than bill-payers.
Chancellor John Healey will deliver his first Budget on October 28 (Image: Getty)
In one of his first acts after announcing himself as PM, Benefits Burnham temporarily cut VAT on domestic electricity bills from 5% to 0% for six months until March.
But Doomsday forecasts show the energy price cap, which limits the maximum price suppliers can charge for each unit of gas and electricity on default tariffs, could shoot up by as much as £442 in January.
The help on offer shows where Labour’s priorities rest.
It is not with the elderly – they tried to callously grab cold weather cash payments from some of the most vulnerable in society; it is not with the strivers and savers; it is not with the lifeblood businesses who create jobs and wealth; and it is not with the defence of the realm.
It is with those who contribute little or nothing and who are being looked after handsomely for doing so.
By the time of the Budget Burnham will have been in post for less than three months but succeeded in creating a two-tier Britain.
Labour blew £329.1bn on benefits in 2025/26 – an astronomical figure equal to 10.7% of GDP and roughly £4,700 per person.
This stratospheric spending dwarfs the £257bn spent on the NHS, the £126bn spent on education, and the paltry spent £62bn on defence.
And it’s only going to get worse as more blank cheques are written.
The welfare bill increased by about £18.8bn in the last financial year and by 2030/31 is forecast to rise to £408.6bn in part fuelled by disability and incapacity benefit payments.
As one exasperated taxpayer said: “Is anybody else sick of working to have this Labour government take more of it off you, to give away in benefits to those already on benefits? It’s ridiculous now.”