Wave goodbye to the British middle classes, exploited to extinction under Starmer's Labour

Yahoo

23-05-2025

Jeremy Clarkson's declaration that Britain has 'fallen off a cliff' in the past 20 years is hard to disagree with. Referencing the boarded up shops, our sewage infested rivers and the fact you still can't get a decent mobile phone signal in some parts of the country, he said: 'I don't know what they do with the money.' Quite.
Government spending remains at a record high, along with the tax burden – and yet, as Nigel Farage has repeatedly pointed out: 'Nothing works'.
I'm proud of my country and I don't like beating the 'broken Britain' drum but the truth is that we are being led by donkeys down a path to self-destruction in what has now come to be known as Starmergrad.
From the EU 'reset' surrender to the £30 billion Chagos Islands giveaway, with badly negotiated trade deals with India and the US thrown into the mix, this Labour Government appears intent on humiliating the UK on the world's stage.
The socialist motivations are plain to see in the demeaning clause in the Chagos agreement, which obliges Britain to be 'mindful of the need to complete the process of decolonisation of Mauritius', even though the islands have never been part of the East African country's territory. Could there be a better reminder of how we're ruled by people whose politics haven't matured since their days in the junior common room? What a pathetic bunch of sell outs.
Domestically, things aren't faring much better. If you're middle class, you've felt 'Britain falling off a cliff' acutely. We thought things were bad last year when Labour cut the winter fuel payment in an assault on supposedly wealthy 'Boomers' and Rachel Reeves imposed record tax rises in the Budget.
Despite promising not to tax 'working people', the increase in employers' national insurance contributions and the lowering of the threshold at which they pay them has done precisely that.
The Office for Budget Responsibility said that, as a result of autumn's fiscal fiasco, the tax burden will reach 'a historic high of 38 per cent of GDP by 2029/30' and predicted inflation and interest rates will both be higher. Indeed, we are already seeing evidence of this with inflation having just jumped to 3.5 per cent driven by higher payments for gas, electricity, water and transport in 'awful April'. 'Faster and deeper' interest rate cuts now look increasingly unlikely.
Combined with the Chancellor's 'lowest ever fiscal headroom' of £9.9 billion, more tax rises seem inevitable, not least if Labour are to perform a u-turn on the winter fuel cut.
And who will pay for all this? Middle England, of course.
If you were ever in any doubt as to the level of hatred Labour reserves for successful, aspirational people like you and me, then just look at the contents of Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner's leaked memo.
Sent to Reeves ahead of the autumn Budget, it proposed eight tax increases including reinstating the pensions lifetime allowance and changing dividend taxes.
She also suggested raiding the million people who pay the additional rate of income tax and a higher corporation tax level for the banks.
Although the Chancellor may have resisted the Corbynista proposals first time round, the document is likely to become a blueprint for Left-wing Labour MPs disgruntled with the Prime Minister over his attempts to cut benefits and bring down immigration.
In Rayner's warped, Marxist mind working people only include those on the factory floor or in the public sector and members of her union paymasters. If you're earning above minimum wage for the private sector, or the business owner who pays workers' wages, then you can be taxed until the pips squeak.
Ironically, the Deputy Prime Minister and her ilk are much more likely to stand up for the nine million people who are economically inactive in this country than to protect actual 'working people' who also happen to be middle class. Rayner has a name for such people which I believe starts with 'Tory' and ends with 'scum'.
The trouble for Labour, however, is that thanks to the cost of living crisis and the wanton profligacy of successive governments, those earning £50,000 to £80,000 do not have any money left to give. Having spent the last decade being fiscally dragged into higher tax rate bands, relatively modest earners are now paying eye-watering tax rates.
In 2010, the 40 per cent higher-rate threshold stood at £43,875, which was 83 per cent higher than average earnings. Today, workers only need to earn 37.6 per cent more than the average wage to be taxed at the higher rate. This figure is expected to fall even further to just 28.3 per cent by 2027-28, according to Taxpayers' Alliance analysis.
If this wasn't all costly enough, consider the impact that immigration has had on house prices in middle-class areas, on top of the price of practically everything having shot up since Covid. Factor in Labour's utterly vindictive VAT on private school fees (which along with the assault on second-home ownership, lays bare the average Labour cabinet minister's contempt for anyone with any aspiration) and it's a recipe for disaster.
And to think these class warfare waging maniacs may also be eyeing up a wealth tax. Last October, a dozen Labour MPs joined a cross-party call for an 'extreme wealth' tax in that month's Budget. They wrote to the Chancellor to demand a new 2 per cent tax on assets worth more than £10 million, which they claim could raise £24 billion per year.
Although Reeves again resisted the pinko proposal, she continues to be lobbied on the issue and is likely to face increasing pressure in the coming month, not least as Unite has also been pushing for it.
With figures showing that one millionaire left Britain every 45 minutes in the year Labour came to power, we already know that such policies have no impact on the super rich, who can simply move elsewhere, and only serve to hammer those contributing the most to Treasury coffers: hard working, professional moderate earners.
They belong to the 40 per cent of the population who pay at least 83 per cent of the taxes that fund our public services.
Labour's unending tax assault on the middle classes isn't just preventing growth and prosperity, it's breaking the backbone of Britain.
Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.