Chancellor Rachel Reeves has entered the history books for imposing more annual tax increases than any other holder of the office in at least six decades. An authoritative analysis of Budget measures reveals the scale of the fiscal tightening implemented by the Labour government.
A Historic Tax Burden
The staggering figures, maintained by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), show that policies announced by Ms Reeves have been scored as adding £75.1 billion a year to the tax burden on Britons. This remarkable total has been accumulated in just her first 18 months residing at 11 Downing Street.
This places her far ahead of her nearest rival for this dubious distinction, fellow former Labour Chancellor Gordon Brown, whose fiscal statements totalled an extra £62.1 billion. In third place is former Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, with £54.9 billion of tax rises announced as he grappled with the economic fallout from the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
How the Chancellors Compare
The OBR database, which adjusts historical figures for GDP growth to present-day terms, provides the best available comparison of the size of tax packages announced since 1970. It shows that Ms Reeves is responsible for two of the ten biggest tax-raising Budgets ever recorded.
Her debut Budget last year is now rated as the second largest, while her most recent package on November 26 ranks as the seventh biggest. Previously, her first Budget was assessed as the largest ever, but recent GDP revisions have slightly altered the historical rankings. It is now classed as marginally smaller than Norman Lamont's Spring 1993 Budget following the Black Wednesday crisis, which is scored at £43.6 billion versus just over £43 billion for Ms Reeves' 2024 event.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, the biggest tax cutter on record is Conservative Nigel Lawson, who announced £104 billion a year of reductions during the Thatcher era. Another Tory, Anthony Barber, cut the burden by the equivalent of £97.9 billion in the early 1970s.
Political Fallout and Future Warnings
The revelations have ignited fierce political debate. Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride stated: "After just 18 months at the Treasury, Rachel Reeves is already making records as the biggest tax raising Chancellor in modern British history." He accused the government of taking the tax burden to historic highs to fund increased welfare spending.
Alarmingly for taxpayers, Ms Reeves has refused to rule out further tax increases in the future, even as the overall burden reaches a new high as a proportion of GDP. Her November statement alone was scored by the OBR as bringing in an eye-watering £29.8 billion a year by 2030-31, a figure comparable only to historic raids by Geoffrey Howe and Denis Healey.
The analysis underscores the profound fiscal choices facing the UK, with the current Chancellor charting a course of significantly higher taxation that has already secured her a unique place in the nation's economic history.
