An ambition to lower taxes in the longer term was lacking in the Budget - Bill Carmichael

This week’s Budget was no exception, with Jeremy Hunt offering lots of gifts to the people, with a smug expression that suggested he was paying for the presents out of his own pocket.

For example, he told the House of Commons that parents will be able to claim 30-hours a week of “free” childcare for children over the age of nine months.

The idea behind this move is that it will persuade many economically inactive women, and not a few men, to return to work, thereby boosting economic growth and increasing the tax receipts that pay for all the public services we value.

This might indeed be a splendid idea, but one thing it most certainly isn’t is “free”. I am afraid that Santa doesn’t exist.

And there isn’t a magic money tree in the garden of Number 11 Downing Street, that Mr Hunt can just shake when he wants to to provide some more “free” stuff.

Sadly, everything has to be paid for by somebody, and if you want to know who that somebody is, just take a look in a mirror.

And let’s never forget that this so-called “low tax” Conservative government is handing out freebies with one hand, while with the other it is cranking up the tax burden on working people to the highest level since Labour’s Clement Attlee was Prime Minister in the dark days after World War ll, when the UK was effectively bankrupt.

Yes, I understand that the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine have placed unprecedented burdens on the UK economy and have limited Mr Hunt’s room for manoeuvre.

But what was lacking in the Budget speech was any ambition to lower taxes in the longer term, which history demonstrates time and again is the only sure fire way to promote growth and increase prosperity.

Or any real recognition that growth and improved productivity is the key to a brighter future for the UK.

Instead, we were treated to a “steady as she goes” Budget that emphasised calmness and competence - perhaps no surprise given the feverish instability of the ill-fated and short lived Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng administration.

Say what you like about Truss and Kwarteng, but at least they understood the importance of growth and tried to create policies to promote it.

In contrast we got a bit of tinkering from Mr Hunt.

For example a welcome extension of help for households on energy bills, and a nice fat tax break on pensions for the very wealthy, including senior doctors (whose junior colleagues are striking in support of the 35 per cent pay increase).

But in key areas there was little help for hard working people. For example, back in 2021 the then Chancellor Rishi Sunak decided to freeze income tax thresholds - an equivalent today of a massive increase of 4p on the basic rate.

That stealth tax comes into force next month and will hugely increase cost of living pressures on workers, but there was no indication in the Budget as to when these thresholds will be unfrozen, if ever.

Similarly, there was no help for companies with the huge rise in Corporation Tax next month to 25 per cent, which is sure to make businesses think twice before investing in high tax Tory Britain.

Often on my commute into work I catch a train just after 6am that I call “The Grafters’ Express”.

I call it that because the people on board are real grafters - the cleaners, road sweepers, medical staff, construction workers and office staff, sitting huddled in the crowded carriages, wrapped up against the cold.

These people are doing the right thing, rising well before dawn to do back breaking shifts to support their families and pay for public services. Their reward from the current government is little short of a nasty kick in the shins in the shape of punishingly high levels of tax.

Mr Hunt said to working people this week that “the government is on your side”.

Really? I am afraid I see precious little evidence of that.

I am convinced that if any party came up with policies designed to benefit the passengers of the Grafters’ Express, they would win a general election by a landslide.

There’s absolutely no sign of any party doing that as far as I can see.