Rachel Reeves to blow £24bn to save Labour from Farage – and YOU pay | Personal Finance | Finance

A financial expert at JP Morgan calculates that Reeves will need to hit taxpayers with a £24 billion tax raid in her Budget to plug the growing black hole in the public finances. Deutsche Bank has echoed the warning, saying higher taxes are now “a near certainty”.

Reeves is in full retreat after Reform UK trounced Labour in recent local elections. And panic is spreading to No. 10.

PM Keir Starmer has abandoned any effort to restrain public spending and is now poised to unleash a taxpayer-funded spree to head off the Farage threat.

And yes – you’ll foot the bill.

Reeves has already used our taxes to curry favour with Labour-backing public sector unions, handing out inflation-busting pay rises without demanding any productivity gains in return.

Now it’s preparing to open the spending taps again – not for the good of the country, but to rescue its crumbling support in the polls.

Taxes are already at a post-war high. Growth is anaemic. And the government’s financial credibility is unravelling.

Reeves once promised to take tough decisions. That pretence is now over.

Her attempt to scrap the winter fuel payment for 10 million pensioners backfired spectacularly, generating just £1.5billion in savings while triggering a fierce Labour party backlash and a surge in claims for pension credit.

Plans to rein in ballooning disability benefits collapsed too, after Deputy PM Angela Rayner publicly demanded tax hikes instead.

Rather than fight for his Chancellor, Starmer has gone into flight mode. He’s now reconsidering the two-child benefit cap, despite the £3.4billion annual cost of scrapping it. That’s on top of the £1.5billion required to reverse the winter fuel cut.

All this, simply to keep Reform at bay.

Reeves began her tenure promising hard choices, but is now cornered.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research says she may need £30billion in tax hikes to stay afloat. Allan Monks at JP Morgan puts the figure at £24billion.

Either way, it’s massive.

And remember, this comes on top of last year’s record-breaking £40billion tax grab, plus an additional £30billion of borrowing.

JP Morgan said weaker growth will cost us £9billion. We’ll also take a £7.3billion hit from Donald Trump’s trade tariffs, despite Starmer’s deals.

Reeves can’t borrow more. Her credit is no good. Spending cuts are off the table. After the disability benefits debacle, Labour knows it can’t risk another internal war.

There’s only one way she can raise that kind of money – more taxes. So once again, working people who will take the hit.

This is pure political cynicism. Labour’s aim is to appease angry voters in Labour’s crumbling Red Wall strongholds before even more defect to Reform.

This won’t boost Britain. It will crush struggling families and small businesses already reeling from frozen tax thresholds, rising bills and slowing growth.

But for Reeves and Starmer, it’s no longer about economics. It’s about political survival.

They’re terrified of Reform and trying to buy off voters with handouts. And they’re sending you the bill.