Britain is hiking taxes by £40 billion ($52 billion) to fill a black hole in public coffers, Finance Minister Rachel Reeves announced Wednesday, October 30, in the Labour government's first budget since winning power.
"I am restoring stability to our public finances and rebuilding our public services," Reeves told parliament having already announced since the election win in July that the tax increases would not fall on workers' incomes.
Britain's first woman chancellor of the exchequer said Wednesday that £25 billion would come from hiking employers' national insurance contributions – a payrolls tax used to help pay for social care.
Changes to inheritance tax will raise more than £2 billion while the government headed by Prime Minister Keir Starmer is also hiking taxes on capital gains and property purchases.
The center-left party was elected on July 4 after promising to banish years of turmoil and scandal under Conservative governments, get Britain’s economy growing and restore frayed public services.
However, it said taxes on so-called "working people" – a term whose definition has been hotly debated in the media for weeks – will not be raised, so Reeves did not change taxes on income or sales. She also unexpectedly maintained the freeze on the levy that drivers pay for fuel.