In just over a year, this government has left a trail of economic damage, and families across North West Hampshire are already feeling the impact.
Inflation is back up to 3.6 per cent, the highest since January 2024, and far above the Bank of England’s two per cent target.
Unemployment has risen for nine straight months.
In hospitality alone, over 108,000 payroll jobs have vanished in the past year, and industry leaders point directly to the chancellor’s tax hike on employers.
Every key economic measure is heading the wrong way.
Prices are up, especially on essentials like food.
Mortgage rates remain painfully high.
And now, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research warns that Labour has blown a £50bn hole in the public finances, with borrowing set to overshoot by tens of billions.
This isn’t bad luck. It’s bad policy.
Labour’s high-tax, high-debt approach is choking off growth and scaring away investment.
Instead of tackling welfare reform or scrapping expensive political pet projects like GB Energy (which, by the way, won’t produce a single kilowatt), ministers are greenlighting massive public sector pay deals, fuelling more strikes, not fewer.
Junior doctors just walked out for five days demanding a 29 per cent raise, after already receiving 22 per cent last year.
Meanwhile, I’m hearing from more and more constituents who are struggling with the cost of living and who are worried about their jobs.
Farmers are furious about the new family farm tax, which could push small farms into bankruptcy.
Smaller firms are devastated by the rise in business taxes, not sure how they will make ends meet.
And now we hear rumours that the chancellor will have to consider a rise in VAT to fill the hole she has created in our national finances.
The list goes on.
This government didn’t have to take us down this road. It chose to.
As it enters its second year, it should stop, listen, and change course — before the damage becomes irreversible.
Kit Malthouse
MP for North West Hampshire
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