In reality, somebody else was dictating the changes, and I don’t mean Rishi Sunak. As the Conservative Party drifts towards electoral defeat, the PM is no more in charge than Hunt.
It may look like Sunak and Hunt are running the country, but closer examination soon reveals the truth. Hunt and Sunak might have as well have been photoshopped into power by Princess Kate, because as the Budget revealed, the true picture is somewhat different.
The Conservative Party is no longer setting the UK’s tax and spending policy. Labour shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves is now the one pulling the strings.
The clearest example of her growing power was Hunt’s decision to axe UK tax breaks for non-doms, a policy lifted straight out of the last Labour Party manifesto.
For years, the Tories have argued that making successful foreign entrepreneurs pay UK tax on their worldwide assets would force them to quit the UK and take their capital and wealth with them.
While Hunt assured Parliament that his “modern, simpler, residency-based system” will raise £2.7billion a year, many reckon the move could cost the UK more tax than it makes.
Hunt used to believe that, too. In 2022 he defended non-dom tax breaks, saying that he “would rather wealthy foreigners spent their money in Britain”.
Not since his conversion to Labour thought.
Hunt attacked non-doms purely to thwart Reeves, because it was her flagship policy. He thought he was being clever, but all he really did was show us which party is setting the agenda today (and it’s not the Tories).
He even sounded like a Labour chancellor, saying it was only right that “those with the broadest shoulders pay their fair share”.
And he didn’t stop there.
Hunt made repeated digs at Labour for being the party of high taxes. Yet he’s the one piling more pressure on middle income Britons, through his six-year freeze on income tax and National Insurance thresholds.
Rachel Reeves could never get away with such a brutal tax policy, but Hunt has done the dirty work for her.
No wonder so many Tory voters are turning to the Reform Party.
Sometimes, Reeves sounds more like a Tory, notably in her recent pledge to restore Britain’s reputation as a place to do business after 14 years of economic failure.
Yet once in power she will no doubt act like a classic Labour chancellor, raining down taxes on higher earners, second homeowners, private schools, foreign property buyers and multinational giants.
We expect that from Labour. We didn’t expect it from the Tories but with this photoshopped government, that’s what we’ve got.
