David Vance SubstackRead More
I was not in the least surprised to discover that Labour’s Rachel Reeves has cemented her place as the most ruthless tax-raising Chancellor in modern history. She has unleashed a staggering £75.1 billion annual tax bomb in just 18 months—far surpassing any predecessor since records began in 1970. That’s a tax bomb, baby! It is the difference that Labour makes when it is given the keys to Number 11 Downing Street by a gullible British public,
According to the OBR’s historic database, this Labour Chancellor’s tax raids dwarf even Gordon Brown’s £62.1 billion and Rishi Sunak’s £54.9 billion, exposing the party’s enduring addiction to squeezing hardworking Brits dry.
Reeves’ two Budgets dominate the top 10 biggest tax hikes: her 2024 debut, initially the largest ever at over £43 billion (now second to Norman Lamont’s 1993 raid due to GDP adjustments), and November 2025’s £29.8 billion assault, ranking seventh—all while pushing the tax burden to a post-war peak of 38.3% of GDP by 2030-31.
Labour will tax tax tax whilst insisting they are making you better off. The hubris is off the scale.
And it’s not just upfront tax increases.
Stealth measures like extending income tax threshold freezes drag millions more into the higher bands. This stands in shameful contrast to the Thatcher era’s bold tax cuts. Nigel Lawson slashed the equivalent of £104 billion annually, and even Anthony Barber £97.9 billion in the early 1970’s, fuelling growth rather than stifling it. It may be a Uniparty but Labour is the TAX party.
Yet Rachel Reeves refuses to rule out even further tax hikes, despite pre-election denials that Labour would raise taxes on “working people”! That pledge shattered as she funds ballooning welfare spending, including scrapping the two-child benefit cap. With growth forecasts slashed, unemployment rising, and businesses reeling from employers’ NIC hikes, Reeves’ policies will lead to more and more taxes.
The historical pattern with Labour is unmistakable: from Denis Healey’s punishing 1970’s raids to Gordon Brown’s stealth taxes, the party consistently burdens taxpayers to prop up bloated spending. It is in their DNA. Reeves prioritises state expansion over aspiration and punishing enterprise. Labour’s tax-and-spend dogma risks Britain’s decline, proving once again that under Labour, it is alarm clock Britain that always pay the price.
