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Nigel Farage blasts Labour's 'timid' Budget - 'Britain is Broke!'

Chancellor John Healey backs 'shirkers not workers' as he fails to make ANY welfare cuts despite record £3 trillion debt

By Reform Daily Team
Nigel Farage blasts Labour's 'timid' Budget - 'Britain is Broke!'
Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage tore into John Healey's "timid" Budget as he warned Britain's perilous finances are "on a knife-edge".

The Chancellor blamed a "global economic storm" as growth forecasts were slashed with taxes and borrowing hitting all-time highs.

Healey - who failed to cut a single penny from Britain's bloated £200 billion welfare spending - pledged to lift tariffs on groceries in a move which will save households just six pence per day. 

He told MPs: “Those are the storms we face. We can’t wish them away."

Healey hiked taxes on banks and gambling firms, blaming the war in the Middle East for higher inflation and debt repayment costs.

The Chancellor announced an 'energy bills support package' - at a cost of £2.6 billion - which will see households in council tax bands A to D receiving £100 from the Government this winter.

But Farage warned families across the country would be worse off every year under Labour.

The Reform leader said: "We are in a deep financial hole. Britain is broke.

"Only a radical plan can begin to do anything about it. That's why we've set out spending cuts of £40bn in the first financial year of a Reform government, rising to £80bn over five years.

"Not everyone's going to like it. It's going to be tough. There'll be protests. There'll be upset. But Government spending has to be cut.

"By taking strong action, we can cut energy bills. Not just by £100 in the short-term, for certain council tax bands. But by £250, on average, permanently, in the first 100 days of being in power."

He added: "We will scrap income tax on overtime for anyone in full-time work earning less than £75,000-a-year.

"And by cutting spending, we can raise tax thresholds to £15,000, with the aim of raising them even higher - to £20,000 if we can - to make the gap between welfare and work much more significant.

"The British economy is broken. Only Reform have the guts to do the one thing that is needed and cut welfare spending."
Budget 2026 John Healey House of Commons
Nigel Farage dismissed John Healey's Budget as 'timid'
In a shock move, Healey also gave HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) sweeping powers “to collect overdue tax from those who can clearly afford to pay but ignore repeated contact”, meaning the taxman will be able to raid people's bank accounts directly.

Mr Farage responded: "HMRC can now seize money from your bank account without even having a meeting. As someone who's been de-banked, this sets a dark precedent. Reform will fight this at every turn."

Other measures announced by the Chancellor included extending the freeze on fuel duty until July next year, hiking machine games duty from 20% to 25% for higher-stakes gambling machines and raising the national minimum wage and national living wage by 3.9%.

He also increased income tax on beleaguered British landlords yet again, by another 2%, halved Business Asset Disposal Relief - in a huge blow to entrepreneurs  - and pledged an extra £10 billion support to Ukraine.
It came as the Office for Budget Responsibility slashed its growth forecast from 1.6% to just 1.0% next year. The forecast is then unchanged at 1.6% in 2028 before rising to 1.8% in 2029, then 1.7% in 2030 against forecasts of 1.5% in each of those years, then 1.6% in 2031.

Reform UK has set out 64 growth proposals for the UK that would immediately boost the ailing economy. 

The party's Shadow Chancellor Robert Jenrick said: "This was a 'do nothing' Budget. It was a nothing burger. It was a Budget that could, and should, have responded to a crisis in our country.

"Britain is broke. And British people feel broke. And this was the best that the Chancellor could deliver?

"Living standards will be down. Growth will be down. Borrowing will be up. And prices are set to rise even higher in the months and the years to come.

"Next year is looking like a truly terrible year for this country. Household spending will be down, business investment will be negative, unemployment will be up and growth will be stagnant - the economy going nowhere.

"This isn't even the managed decline we've seen in recent years. The country is going backwards."

He added: "Real wages will not rise by a single penny in 2027 or 2028. Borrowing will be higher than planned, every single year Debt will be no lower by 2032 than it is today.

"The Government will spend £109 billion this year on debt interest alone and that is set to rise to £160 billion by 2031.

"Taxes will rise by £36 billion-a-year - the most in history.

"Where are the cuts coming from!? Supposedly, in 2029 or 2029, we'll see some cuts to welfare and public services. Don't make me laugh.

"This Prime Minister, this Chancellor, have not been able to offer a single saving in their 100 days in office."
Robert Jenrick Budget 2026 Reform UK
Robert Jenrick said Healey's Budget was a 'nothing burger'
The OBR said the UK’s “economic and fiscal position remains very challenging” after almost two decades of shocks and stagnation, pushing up the national debt.

In a statement accompanying the Budget, it said: “Since 2008, repeated adverse shocks have contributed to persistently weak GDP growth and elevated levels of Government borrowing.

“This has resulted in a sharp increase in Government debt as a share of GDP, to a level that is high by both recent historical and international standards.”

The Government is expected to borrow more every year than had been forecast in March, with the cost of that borrowing also set to increase.

Borrowing is around £18 billion higher this year, £16 billion in 2027-28, and an average of £11 billion a year over the following years, the OBR said.

The cost of debt interest is expected to be £15 billion higher this year and then £12 billion a year more on average in the years to come.

The jump in borrowing costs is linked to Mr Healey lowering his fiscal headroom against the Government’s self-imposed spending rules to £15 billion in 2029-30, from a previous prediction of £26 billion.

The OBR said high inflation will contribute to a painful squeeze on living standards and that it was expecting “no real earnings growth in 2027”, with household disposable income set to fall.

Economist Paul Johnson, former Director of the Institute of Fiscal Studies, said: "The real story of this Budget is the can being kicked down the road. 

"This Labour Government is apparently planning spending cuts on most areas of public service spending of 2.6% per year between 2028-29 and 2031-32. Pull the other one. It's got bells on." 
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