The fall-out from Wednesday’s Budget continues in our Letters Pages.
Some of the measures had been widely trailed, notably the 2p cut in National Insurance contributions, but one surprise measure provided a big talking point: the abolition of the “non-dom” tax break for UK residents with foreign income.
Read more: Jeremy Hunt paves way for summer election with tax cuts
Today one of our readers argues that that move has removed a key plank of Keir Starmer’s election planning … and reflects that a lack of wriggle room may well consign Labour to being a one-term government.
Denis Bruce of Bishopbriggs writes:
"In the final days of this Tory Government, Jeremy Hunt has produced his final Budget, skewering Labour with his ruse of purloining Labour's policy to scrap the non-dom tax status.
"That ruse has spiked Labour's guns in its plan to use the proceeds from that source to fund areas in the NHS if it becomes the next government. Now it will have to scramble around to find alternative sources of funding to meet that objective.
"We have also witnessed the true colours of this failing Government with its duplicitous rhetoric.
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"When the Chancellor came out with the remark that public services would have to learn to do more with less, that was tantamount to saying that they will have to run faster to stay in the same place. All that means is that there will be a downsizing in public services.
"Mr Hunt boasted that debt levels are going down, but debt levels are predicted to rise until 2028, when there will then be a slight dip in debt levels, though they will still be higher than those of today even with that dip.
"Should Labour manage to translate its poll lead into becoming the incoming government, it will be left with little wriggle room to transform the UK's economy owing to the fiscal legacy left behind by the Conservatives.
"That will make it an easy target for the vitriol of the right-wing media and could consign it to being a one-term government, leaving the door of 10 Downing Street wide open for the return of the most radical right-wing regime ever."
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