Political commentator Dr Mike Jones has warned that Labour will resort to "jiggery-pokery" with the tax system in the Autumn Budget, predicting potential rises of up to £40billion following the Government's retreat on benefits reforms.Speaking to GB News, Dr Jones said taxes would have to increase due to flatlining productivity and less optimistic economic growth forecasts than Labour had anticipated.He told GB News: "There's going to be a fiscal black hole for two reasons. Firstly, productivity has continued to flatline."Economic growth forecasts aren’t as optimistic as the Labour Party had expected. And, obviously, Labour has turned away from welfare reforms."My personal view is that they won’t necessarily raise income tax, but they will freeze thresholds. There will also be targeted levies possibly on corporation tax, possibly on pensions."But there will be a lot of jiggery-pokery going on with the tax system. Ultimately, though, taxes will have to go up, unfortunately."Rachel Reeves has already raised taxes. In her October Budget last year, she increased them by about £40billion, which is the highest amount since the 1990s. The Labour Party are completely out of their depth."They haven't properly cut total managed expenditure and now the British taxpayer is going to pay the price."READ THE FULL STORY HERE
00:00Look, we know taxes are going to have to go up. The idea that she'll hit income tax, particularly, is unthinkable. She'll be trying every other which way, won't she?
00:13Yeah, I mean, there's going to be a fiscal black hole for two reasons. Firstly, productivity has continued to flatline. Economic growth forecasts aren't as optimistic as what the Labour Party thought.
00:24And obviously, Labour has U-turned on welfare reforms. My own personal view on this is that they won't raise income tax necessarily, but they will freeze thresholds.
00:38There will also be targeted levies, possibly with corporation tax, possibly with pensions, but there will be a lot of, you know, sort of jiggery-pokery going on with the tax system.
00:50But, you know, ultimately, taxes will have to go up, unfortunately. But, you know, Rachel Reeves has already raised taxes.
00:58You know, in her October budget, she raised taxes by about £40 billion, which, you know, is the highest amount since the 1990s.
01:07But, you know, the Labour Party are completely out of their depth. They haven't properly cut total managed expenditure. And now the British taxpayer is going to pay the price.
01:17Yeah. I mean, do you feel any sympathy for her? I mean, it's no wonder she's in tears because everything she tries to do appears to backfire.
01:25Either it's massively unpopular with us, the voters, or it's incredibly unpopular with their own backbenchers.
01:33She must be wondering which is the least worst option now.
01:36On a personal level, I do feel sorry for her. Obviously, I don't want to see any, you know, man or woman cry in the House of Commons.
01:45Obviously, she's under massive stress. But yeah, you know, she's stuck between a rock and a hard place.
01:52Her backbenchers are living in cloud cuckoo land.
01:55They really do not pay attention to the bond markets, total managed expenditure and the tax burden that's been imposed on the UK.
02:05I mean, you know, it's a 70-year-plus high.
02:09So, yeah, on a personal level, I feel sorry for her.
02:12But, you know, her tax and spend policies have imposed immense hardship on the British people, you know, farmers, pensioners, small business owners.
02:22So, yeah, that's just the situation. And it's going to get worse.
