- Nearly 2 million to be hit by £9 billion “stealth tax bombshell” by the end of the decade
- Labour needs to “learn to u-turn faster” on two-child benefit cap
- Davey on Farage speech: “Trussonomics on steroids”
- Triple lock: from privatising the NHS now Farage “wants to come after people’s pensions”
- Badenoch must rule out Rupert Lowe joining Conservatives
- 9,523 Scots waiting on social care assessment or care package
Nearly 2 million to be hit by £9 billion “stealth tax bombshell” by the end of the decade
The Labour government’s plans to maintain the income tax threshold freezes introduced by the Conservatives mean that an estimated additional 1.9 million people will be hit, forcing them to shell out close to an estimated £9 billion in additional tax receipts by the end of the decade, House of Commons Library research, commissioned by the Liberal Democrats, has revealed.
The Labour government has said that income tax threshold freezes for both the Personal Allowance and the higher rate of income tax will be maintained until April 2028. The impact means that between 2025/26 and 2029/30 an estimated 1.9 million people will be forced to pay a higher rate of tax due to these threshold freezes.
It means for those millions impacted, they will be forced to shell out an estimated £8.9 billion in additional tax as a result of the freezes by the end of the decade.
It follows on from the previous Conservatives government’s decision to freeze tax thresholds in April 2021. The House of Commons Library research says the impact of that 2021 freeze combined with the Labour government’s decision to maintain the freeze means that an estimated additional 7.625 million people will have been dragged into higher tax bands by the end of the decade. That is the equivalent to one in nine of the current UK population.
The total additional tax bill since the 2021 freeze will reach roughly £33.2 billion by 2029/30, rising from £24.3 billion this year.
The hardest hit areas will be London and the South East, where people in both regions hit by the stealth tax will pay out an estimated £3 billion in additional tax from now until the end of the decade. In total, London and the South East will have paid out £11.3 billion in additional taxes by the end of the decade since the April 2021 freeze.
The Liberal Democrats said that the “Conservative economic vandalism led us into this mess, but this Labour government has proven clueless in generating the growth needed to break this stagnation”. The party added that the only way to bring down the tax bill was through meaningful growth and that needed to come from the Government scrapping its jobs tax and negotiating a bespoke UK-EU customs union.
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson, Daisy Cooper MP said:
During the midst of the worst cost of living crisis for a generation, people are now set to be hammered once again by this stealth tax bombshell.
People should be rewarded for their hard-work, not seeing earnings ripped away through these punitive measures.
The Conservatives’ economic vandalism led us into this mess, but this Labour government has proven clueless in generating the growth needed to break this stagnation.
The only way we can bring the tax bill down, protect family finances and rebuild public services is through meaningful economic growth. That has to come from scrapping the Government’s jobs tax and negotiating a bespoke UK-EU customs union to free our businesses from a Gordian Knot of red tape.
Labour needs to “learn to u-turn faster” on two-child benefit cap
Responding to Bridget Phillipson telling the Today programme that scrapping the two-child benefit cap is “on the table”, Daisy Cooper MP, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson and Deputy Leader, said:
The heartless two-child limit has to go – no ifs, no buts.
Dangling hope in front of desperate parents is inexcusable. Continuing to punish children just for being born is unforgivable.
The public is fed up of a government failing to deliver change – Labour needs to learn to u-turn faster.
Davey on Farage speech: “Trussonomics on steroids”
Responding to Nigel Farage’s speech today, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:
Nigel Farage praised the disastrous Truss mini-budget, and now he wants to repeat it with huge unfunded spending pledges and only vague promises of fantasy savings. It’s Trussonomics on steroids.
We all remember far too well what that means: crashing the economy and sending interest rates soaring. It’s even more ludicrous coming from a man who is licking the boots of Donald Trump as his trade war does such terrible damage to our economy.
Just like the Conservative Party, Reform aren’t a serious opposition to this government. Only the Liberal Democrats are championing the positive change our country needs.
Triple lock: from privatising the NHS now Farage “wants to come after people’s pensions”
Responding to Nigel Farage refusing to commit to keeping the triple lock, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:
Not only does he want to privatise the NHS, now Nigel Farage wants to come after people’s pensions too.
Kemi Badenoch will certainly be happy that she and Farage have found some common ground when she asks him for a pact.
Liberal Democrats are proud to have introduced the triple lock, standing by those who have given so much to our society. Nigel Farage would rather abandon them.
Badenoch must rule out Rupert Lowe joining Conservatives
Responding to reports that Rupert Lowe is ‘open’ to joining the Conservatives, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader and Treasury Spokesperson, Daisy Cooper MP, said:
Badenoch needs to urgently confirm that she won’t allow Rupert Lowe to join the Conservatives. Anything less would show that the Conservatives have moved even further to the extremes.
This surely also has to be the last straw for Robert Jenrick’s underhand leadership campaign. Badenoch needs to sack him or accept that she is too weak to control her own front bench.
9,523 Scots waiting on social care assessment or care package
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has today urged the Scottish Government to turn up the tempo as new figures revealed that there are more than 9,000 people currently waiting on social care assessments and care at home packages.
Figures from Public Health Scotland published today reveal:
- The number of people estimated to be waiting on a social care assessment for a package of care to enable them to live independently at home or in the community was 6,639 on 5 May 2025.
- The estimated number of people assessed and waiting for a care at home package was 2,884 on 5 May 2025.
Alex Cole-Hamilton said:
People are stuck in hospital waiting for care packages and assessments when they want to be getting on with their lives.
You can’t fix the NHS unless you fix care because the more patients are delayed in leaving hospital, the longer people wait at A&E and the longer ambulances wait outside the front door.
That’s why Scottish Liberal Democrats are so focused on repairing the crisis in social care and unpicking the damage done by the SNP. We secured millions more through our budget negotiations, ended wasteful spending on another SNP centralisation and fashioned a new pipeline for care workers through colleges. Now we need the Scottish Government to get on and make that count.