Rachel Reeves thinks we’re fighting Hitler – nobody did this since war | Personal Finance | Finance

We can see other trends of the 1970s under his watch, such as blackouts, blackouts, energy rationing, and resurgent union militancy. In parts of Birmingham where rubbish has not been collected for months due to strikes, we are already there. Rachel Reeves is not the only Labor figure who has led us into one of the bleakest periods in our recent history. Ed Miliband and Angela Rayner have done their bit. But Reeves’ damage extends beyond the era of Abba and Slade. Now it takes us back to the 1940s.

That war-torn decade was, of course, much tougher than this, when Britain fought a war for national survival against Adolf Hitler’s evil Nazi regime and the Empire of Japan. We could not escape this war, so Parliament elected a suitable leader like Winston Churchill as Prime Minister. On the home front, Britons faced real austerity, not the fake version Labor bemoans today. There was also the threat of being bombed or gassed. Things may seem bad now, but they are not as difficult as they used to be.

But in a very important respect, Reeves takes us back to the darkest days of the 1940s. Because that was the last time our tax burden was as high as it is today.

Governments always increase taxes in times of war. Income tax was first introduced in 1799 to finance the Napoleonic Wars. World War II was even more costly. In 1939, government taxes collected 23.4% of total national production. By 1945 this had risen to 37.6% of GDP.

Thanks to Margaret Thatcher’s government, the rate fell to a post-war low of 28.3 per cent in 1993, but Tony Blair’s New Labor quickly brought it back up and the Conservatives did their part. By 2023/24, the last full tax year before Keir Starmer’s Labor Party came to power, the tax was gobbling up 34.9% of GDP.

Under Rachel Reeves, taxes rose like a V2 rocket. This year, 37% of everything the country produces will be taxed. And this is just the beginning. Last week, the IMF warned that Reeves was raising taxes the fastest in the world. A look that will definitely surprise no one.

Reeves, who vowed not to increase taxes on “working people” before the election, has already imposed around £70 billion in extra taxes and is not done yet. Next April, it will impose an inheritance tax on pensions and a 2 percent surcharge on savings interest. Income tax thresholds will remain frozen until 2031, pushing millions more into the net.

By 2031 the UK’s tax burden will reach 42.1% of GDP. In other words, after years of relative peace, we will be paying much more in taxes than we did to finance the all-out war against fascism. It will cost each home an average of £4,500.

Incredibly, as threats from Russia, China and Iran increase, Reeves claims there is no longer money for defence. From where? Because he splurges like a drunk crew member at VE Day. And he continues to tax and spend as if there was a war. A further £130bn will be added to the national debt this year alone.

For your information, we are not fighting Adolf Hitler. But if Britain is drawn into one of today’s escalating conflicts, we won’t have a penny left to defend ourselves. We will be defeated before we even begin.