Budget 2024: Cheaper pints, fuel duty freeze and Universal Credit boost – Rachel Reeves’ Halloween Budget laid bare
Date: 2024-10-30FUEL duty will still stay frozen for a FIFTEENTH year following tireless campaigning by The Sun.
At today’s Budget the Chancellor confirmed there will be “no higher taxes at the petrol pumps next year”.
But Brits will still suffer from a whopping £40bn in tax rises, including huge rises to fag and soft drink duties.
In a blow for smokers, there will be a 10% levy rise on rollies.
And there will be a one off- increase in tobacco duty “to maintain the incentive to give up smoking”.
But in a major boost for pubs, alcoholic drinks served on draught will benefit from a 1.7% tax cut, taking a “penny off a pint in the pub”.
In a major win for The Sun’s Keep It Down campaign, the Chancellor said: Â “At a time when the fiscal position is so difficult, I have to be frank with the house that this is a substantial commitment to make.
“I have concluded that in these difficult circumstances while the cost of living remains high and with a backdrop of global uncertainty increasing fuel duty next year would be the wrong choice for working people.
“So, I have today decided to freeze fuel duty next year and I will maintain the existing 5p cut for another year, too.
“There will be no higher taxes at the petrol pumps next year.”
To crackdown on Britain’s massive benefits bill, Ms Reeves announced £240m for 16 new “trailblazer projects” aimed at getting the economically inactive back to work.
The Chancellor also hailed a major 6.7 per cent boost to the National Living Wage, taking it to to £12.21 an hour, a £1,400 pay rise for full-time workers.
As expected, Ms Reeves reaffirmed her commitment to the pension triple lock.
She said: Â “A Labour policy to protect working people, being delivered by a Labour government once again.”
WATCH RACHEL REEVES ON NEVER MIND THE BALLOTS
By Ryan Sabey, Deputy Political Editor
RACHEL Reeves will be grilled in a special Budget edition of The Sun’s Never Mind The Ballots show today.
Our Political Editor Harry Cole will put the Chancellor on the spot shortly after she’s finished delivering her crucial address in the House of Commons.
It will be available to watch on thesun.co.uk, YouTube and Sun social channels at 5.30pm.
Topics will include her decision on whether to spare motorists a fuel duty rise, and the expected eye-watering tax rises she will impose.
Since its launch earlier this year, NMTB has cemented its place at the heart of British politics.
During the General Election campaign The Sun was the only print publisher to host back-to-back grillings of Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer.
Footage from The Election Showdown has been viewed over 15 million times.
NMTB has also featured interviews with ex-PMs Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, as well as senior politicians Nigel Farage, James Cleverly, Wes Streeting, Steve Reed and Bridget Phillipson.
The “painful” Halloween Budget has been designed to plug a “£22billion black hole” in the public purse, which the Chancellor blames on the Tories.
Ms Reeves told a packed out Commons chamber: “The country has inherited not just broken public finances, but broken public services too.
“The British people can see and feel that in their everyday lives.
“Their plans relied on a baseline for spending this year which we now know was wrong because it did not take into account the £22bn black hole.”
The Chancellor added that the government’s economic watchdog predicts her Budget will help the economy grow, albeit by anaemic amounts.
The OBR believes real GDP growth will be 1.1% in 2024, 2.0% in 2025, 1.8% in 2026, 1.5% in 2027, 1.5% in 2028 and 1.6% in 2029.Â
