George Osborne’s tax hike higher than Labour’s rates

Families are on course to face a higher tax burden under George Osborne than they did in nearly every year under Labour.

Figures buried in the Budget documents reveal taxes will rise to 37.5 per cent of national income in 2019-20.

This means the tax burden at the end of this parliamentary term will be higher than it was every year bar one when Gordon Brown was Chancellor.

Taxes were only higher in 2000-01, the year before Tony Blair won a second term with free-spending Mr Brown at his side.

The figures undermine the Chancellor’s claim to be a ‘low-tax Conservative’ and his repeated pledges to ease the burden on middle-class families. Tory MPs last night called for the tax bill to come down, and economists urged Mr Osborne to be more honest with the public.

John Redwood, MP for Wokingham and a former key economic adviser to Margaret Thatcher, said: ‘It’s quite obvious overall that the Chancellor hasn’t cut taxes.

‘He’s always gone for increases in tax revenues. I would like to see taxes lower than they are today.’

Sam Bowman, executive director of the Adam Smith Institute think tank, said: ‘Whatever Mr Osborne claims, overall he hasn’t been a tax-cutting Chancellor. He hasn’t done what he said he would do and he hasn’t done what I think most Conservative voters expected him to do.

The figures undermine the Chancellor’s claim to be a ‘low-tax Conservative’ and his repeated pledges to ease the burden on middle-class families

‘The tax cuts Mr Osborne has gone for have added complexity to the system and have not been well-targeted.’

In cash terms, the tax take rose to £654.8billion last year.

It will increase again to £820.9billion by 2019-20, according to the independent Office for Budget Responsibility.

The Government will not spend less than it earns until the end of this decade, when Mr Osborne is expected to scrape through with a £10.4billion surplus.