Matthew Lynn Matthew Lynn

Rachel Reeves’ Budget is falling apart

Rachel Reeves and Ed Miliband (photo: Getty)

It could be 30 per cent. Or 35 per cent? Or perhaps 39 per cent? Heck, who knows, if Rachel Reeves wants to keep the accountants on their toes, perhaps 39.657 per cent. The Treasury is, according to the latest leaks to the Guardian, looking at an increase in Capital Gains Tax as it scrabbles around for tax rises to fund the Chancellor’s spending plans, while not putting up the amount ordinary people are paying. The trouble is, whatever number she picks it is not going to work – and Rachel Reeves is fast gaining a reputation as a shambolic Chancellor.

The list of failed tax rises from the new government is growing every day

Given how much time Reeves spent boasting about how she ‘knew how to run the economy’, and the plaudits from the likes of Mark Carney, we might at least have assumed that she had a plan for raising more money from the ‘rich’ to fund generous wage rises for the public sector and the billions to be spent on GB Energy and the National Wealth Fund.

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