Sunak highlights the problem with the Northern Ireland protocol
Spectator (UK)Sep 09, 2022
Rishi Sunak Delivers UK Spring Budget Statement
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Image copyright: UK Prime Minister via Wikimedia Commons
The Facts
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has delivered his Spring statement amidst a cost of living crisis and increasing threat of inflation to the UK economy.
Measures being introduced are to include: raising the threshold for paying NI by £3k, a 5p cut to fuel duty and decreasing the basic rate of income tax from 20% to 19%.
The Spin
Left narrative
Sunak's response to the current crisis is woefully inadequate. His limited measures will only provide a boost to low-and-middle income families, doing nothing to help the poorest in society. Pensioners and those on benefits face struggling to pay for the basics while energy companies profiteer from soaring prices.
Right narrative
The Chancellor had little choice but to play a conservative hand under the current economic circumstances. Both inflation and interest rates are set to rise further and the OBR predicts debt service payments will cost £83bn this year alone. More radical measures would have been fiscally irresponsible.
