Healey has left £49bn blackhole in Britain’s finances, claims Badenoch

John Healey has left the UK with a £49bn black hole that will require substantial tax increases, Kemi Badenoch has claimed. The Conservative party leader said Labour would have to raise taxes by £,1,700 per household annually by the 2030/31 financial year to pay for unfunded spending promises. In particular, Badenoch accused the Chancellor of failing to explain how he would meet his defence spending target of three per cent of GDP, arguing there would be an £11bn shortfall in the 2030/31 tax year.

“Rather than setting out how we will find the funding…which the Chancellor once said he was certain Britain needed for our own security, we just had vague commitments,” Badenoch wrote in the The Telegraph. Worst yet to come? Away from the Budget, Burnham has also pledged to create a National Care Service, which economists anticipate will cost up to £18bn annually. The prime minister announced plans to adjust the triple lock from 2030, effectively creating a double lock, using the savings to fund the new service, but this is not expected to completely cover Burnham’s plans.

Coupled with ambitions for council housing, Badenoch has accused Healey of creating a “£49bn black hole at the heart of the public finances”. Badenoch said: “Who’s going to pay for it? The prime minister gave the game away on Friday when he said he would have written the 2024 manifesto differently. “Let me translate that. He wishes he had more room to raise taxes even further.” Labour’s ‘welfare addiction’ She went on to accuse prime minister Andy Burnham of failing to make “tough decisions in the national interest”, instead “putting them off”.

She said: “After 100 days in office, all Burnham has got is a plan to publish a plan at some point…either they’ll have to do another Budget, perhaps before an early election, or families are in for a nasty shock.” Badenoch also called out Labour’s tax rises, with Healey’s predecessor hiking taxes on homes, pensions and farms. Healey himself increased taxes on savings, rental properties and banks. The Conservative leader pinned Labour hiked taxes to the party’s inability to break its “welfare addiction”.

“The country is living well beyond its means, but Andy Burnham and John Healey are making it worse,” Badenoch said. “This Government is kicking the can down the road to the end of Parliament, pretending that the same Labour MPs who blocked Keir Starmer’s tiny welfare savings are going to allow spending cuts right before a general election.”