Jeremy Hunt fears ‘disastrous’ Rachel Reeves tax hikes with Britons set to be plunged into ‘doom loop’

Rachel Reeves will put taxes at the Budget this Autumn, former Conservative Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has said.Hunt also said that his biggest mistake when he was in charge of the Treasury was not to be clearer about his determination to cut taxes.And he said Britons were as concerned about the spiralling welfare budget as the small boats migrant crisis.Asked if Reeves will put up taxes at the Budget. Hunt told Chopper's Political Podcast: "I fear she will, yes. I think it's going to be a disastrous thing for the economy if she does. "What many of us are worried about is that we're going to end up in this doom loop of ever higher taxes and ever lower growth. And there are lots of divides in British politics. "The Conservative Party is the only party that really believes that you have to have lower taxes if you want higher growth. "Look around the world - America, Asia - all the countries where the economy is going gangbusters are places which have kept their taxes low. Only in Europe, including the UK, sadly, have we gone in the opposite direction. "Now I know I had to put up taxes after the pandemic. You know, we borrowed £400 billion and that had to be paid for. But I was seeking to get us on a path back to lower tax. And I'm worried that we're now going to go in the opposite direction.Hunt added: "My biggest failure as Chancellor was not to get across the message that we really did want to reduce tax. We had to put them up to pay for not just the Covid cost, but also we had the energy shock, all that help with people's fuel bills. But we wanted - as soon as we could - to get back on a path of bringing them down. And I'm not sure, in all honesty, that people actually believe that. I think they thought, Labour, Tories, they'll put up your taxes. "And that may have contributed to the result that we ended up getting."Hunt added that "the litmus test as to whether we have a strong, competent, capable government is whether they can get to grips with the welfare budget. "People are as scared of soaring welfare costs as they are of small boat crossings, and this is something which, if she is going to prove her economic competence, she has to find a way of winning the argument with Labour backbenchers."He added that the best way to deal with mental health is for people to try to come to work rather than be signed off and made to remain at home.He said: "The worst thing you can do is exclude people from the world of work. And so what we should be doing if people coming forward with mental illness, which is the biggest cause of the growth in the welfare budget is, we should be saying we're going to treat you, not we're going to sign you off having to look for work."Listen to Chopper's Political Podcast on Spotify or Apple podcasts or watch it on GB News' YouTube channel.