Susanna Siddell
Guest Reporter
A Reform UK MP has issued a major economic warning to the Chancellor over the upcoming October Budget.
In just a few days' time, Rachel Reeves is expected to unleash the biggest tax raid in history with further plans to slash the budgets of several Governmental departments.
Currently, there is speculation surrounding the taxes that the Labour Chancellor will raise, including fuel duty, capital gains tax and National Insurance contributions.
This would mark the first time fuel duty would increase since former Tory Chancellor George Osborne froze the tax during the Coalition Government.
The money will be spent on public services, covering costs associated with asylum seekers, workers' pay increases and NHS funding.
Responding to reports that the upcoming Budget will be the largest tax raid in history, Reform MP Rupert Lowe issued a major warning to the Chancellor, claiming her plans will "suffocate the economy".
He wrote on X: "This is absolute madness - Reeves is going to suffocate our economy.
"The ONLY way to create real and sustainable growth is to slash tax and return power to the individual.
"Socialist central planning will always fail."
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According to the Financial Times, one Whitehall source said: "Ministers and departments feel that what they are being given is very miserable. They are worried about what it means for Government ambitions and commitments.
"But of course they can’t see the overall picture — quite how difficult the inheritance really is and the scale of the pressures on tax and borrowing. But it’s very, very difficult for all of them."
Cabinet ministers, including Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, have reportedly expressed their concerns surrounding potential department budget cuts.
A spokesman from Downing Street has said that this sort of communication is standard procedure.
The only benefit cut that Reeves has committed to scrapping Winter Fuel Payments for pensioners, which is predicted to bring in £1.4billion to the Treasury.
Official forecasts have indicated that state spending on health and disability benefits will increase to £63billion between 2028-9.
Following calls that the UK should pay reparations for its historic involvement in slavery, the Chancellor told GB News' Christopher Hope on Monday: "I don't think that that is on the cards, and certainly not anything that has come across my desk as Chancellor.
"My focus is on fixing the public finances and ensuring that there is money available for our National Health Service whilst rebuilding the foundations of our economy."
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