Tolley's Reaction to the Chancellor reversing almost all tax measures

There’s never been anything like it!

We’ve had U-turns before but nothing remotely on this scale. To have reversed virtually the entirety of a Budget (OK a ‘growth plan’) within a few days is unprecedented and shows just how much of a miscalculation the announcements on 23 September have turned out to be. The fact that the Chancellor’s statement had to be brought forward not once, but twice, underlines just how serious the situation had become. The only remotely similar event I can recall is in November 1996 when the press obtained details of Ken Clarke’s Budget in advance. There was serious thought about bringing forward the date of the Budget to prevent market volatility but in the end the normal timetable prevailed. There was absolutely no chance of such a calm reaction this time round.

So all that survives from the original announcements would seem to be the NIC cut (which has already been approved by Parliament) and the Stamp Duty changes. Everything else is back on the table and we await the statement at 3-30 this afternoon to see if anything else has survived the fiscal bonfire. Judging by what the Chancellor has said this morning there doesn’t seem to be much left.

HMRC once had a slogan ‘tax doesn’t have to be taxing’. I doubt that anybody would dare whisper that into the Prime Minister’s ears this morning.

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