Dear Rishi, Thanks for nothing and up yours
The Daily Star called it “The Up Yours Mini Budget”. The Daily Express had “The Forgotten Millions Say: What About Us?” The Mirror went with: “Thanks For Nothing.”
The broadsheet papers weren’t much kinder, The Telegraph, Times, Independent and Guardian going with some version of “Biggest fall in living standards on record.”
(The Sun splashed with Russia bidding to host the Euros, and doesn’t get into the budget until page 10, which is plain odd, but then has “For Risher…For Poorer”.)
It is hard to remember such a universally negative reaction to a budget, even a mini-budget.
Whatever you thought of the content of Rishi Sunak’s Spring statement yesterday, there is no denying that from a PR point of view it stank.
Which is odd in a way since Sunak is plainly deeply image and message conscious. And he didn’t see this coming.
The Chancellor was on damage limitation this morning, doing the media rounds. On Radio 4 he was plain tetchy, offering, “if I could just have the chance to answer the question, that would be marvellous”.
Oooh.
Our Find Out Now poll today asked 2000 people a simple question: Do you expect that Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Spring statement will make you better or worse off?
Only 6% think it will be good for them. The most striking result is the 49% of “don’t knows”.
All of that effort and spin and talk. And most people have no idea what Rishi Sunak just said.
You can see the full results and a breakdown below
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Who is going to benefit from the new national insurance threshold, and how much will they save? There is a decent guide here from Raisin UK, though it cuts off at £50,000. Kevin Mountford says: “This National Insurance tax rise just as a cost-of-living crisis hits has been criticised as the wrong tax at the wrong time, with ongoing pressure for the government to step up for households who are feeling the worst.” |
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