2024 Spring Budget - the political reaction

06 Mar 2024

Addressing the House of Commons, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt used the 2024 Spring Budget to announce a 'Budget for long-term growth', announcing an employee national insurance tax cut from 10% to 8% in April; an increase to the High Income Child Benefit Charge from £50,000 to £60,000; and the abolition of the non-dom tax regime, which will be replaced with a fairer system from April 2025.

Responding to the Chancellor's speech, Labour Party Leader Keir Starmer said that the UK's 'national credit card is maxed out'. Commenting on the government's Budget measures, he continued: 'They lost control of the economy, they sent interest rates through the roof.

'They made working people pay. They should be under no illusion – that record is how the British people will judge [the Budget] cuts. They know the thresholds are still frozen, dragging more and more people into higher taxes.'

Meanwhile, Carla Denyer, Co-Leader of the Green Party, said: 'We needed a Budget that released the money available from a Wealth Tax to invest in the green jobs of the future, to cut NHS queues and restore nature and the places we live and work.

'We needed a Budget that introduced a Wealth Tax, and reformed capital gains tax and national insurance to raise over £50 billion per year. That would have provided the vital public investment our country is crying out for.'