'Playing Santa when you act like Scrooge will backfire on Sunak and Hunt'

22 November 2023 , 16:46

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Chancellor Jeremy Hunt laid out his Autumn Statement in Parliament (Image: UK PARLIAMENT/AFP via Getty Imag)

Taking people for fools will backfire on Jeremy Hunt and Rishi Sunak.

Playing Santa when you act like Scrooge isn't a Con trick folk are swallowing. Because voters feel the emptying of purses, wallets and bank accounts.

So noisily giving a National Insurance cut with one hand then grabbing back much more with the other, sneaky Income Tax rises powering the tax burden to a post-war record high, is a calamitous error.

Revenge will be enjoyed at the ballot box by the very people the Chancellor and Prime Minister plot to hoodwink. These people know the hard, grim facts of life in Tory Britain. These people won't be fooled by sweet talk and temporary sugar rushes.

Prices soaring 16% over two years and food bills rocketing 28% are daily headaches. Inflation might've come down but it's forecast to still go up significantly for longer. Living standards 3.5% lower next year than before Covid alone invites an election punishment beating.

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The only growth is the growth in Tory deceit when economic growth is forecast to crawl slower next year and the two after. If Britain's turned a corner, as the Chancellor and PM pretend, it's come off the road on the bend.

Even national debt, a Conservative fetish, is mounting faster. Sometimes I wonder if Hunt and Sunak actually believe what they claim. Maybe when you're as wealthy as that loaded pair you buy a fantasy reality.

It's a mistake on Plant Tory for the helicopter Con merchants to speak as if the little people below wade in milk and honey. Those same little people, sick of being exploited and taken for fools, will have the last laugh come the election.

Kevin Maguire