Labour’s 27 months in power (Oct 2026)

There is little doubting that things have deteriorated significantly across the board since Labour came to power in 2024.

Living standards are demonstrably worse; the individual and business tax burden is at a post-war high; the national debt has surpassed £3trillion (and is costing the British taxpayer £124bn per year in interest payments alone); unemployment is at 5%, youth unemployment is at 15.6% (with 39.1% of 16-24 year olds economically inactive); 642,365 businesses have permanently closed; and the UK welfare bill is now £2bn per year HIGHER than the total annual treasury revenue generated from Income Tax.

Just this week, Poundland announced it was entering administration, placing the jobs of it’s 11,000 employees at risk. And why?... because this Labour government has British businesses with increased minimum wages and employer National Insurance demands, rising rents and business rates, increased regulations and compliance costs, soaring energy bills and net zero costs, and new packaging taxes, recycling regulations and environmental compliance costs.

If a shop like Poundland cannot survive in the business landscape that this Labour government has created, what hope is there for any High Street business that doesn’t rely of importing cheap tat from overseas?

But the true scale of the disastrous environment that this government has created through their economic illiteracy expands far beyond these things.

In the 27 months since Labour came to power, we have seen:

• Employer National Insurance increased from 13.8% to 15%.

• The employer NI threshold cut from £9,100 to £5,000.

• The freeze on Income Tax and National Insurance thresholds extended to 2031.

• Capital Gains Tax increased from 10% and 20% to 18% and 24%.

• Business Asset Disposal Relief increased from 10% to 14%, then 18% – and now its lifetime limit halved to £500,000.

• Investors’ Relief raised to 18%, and its lifetime limit cut from £10 million to £1 million.

• CGT relief on sales to Employee Ownership Trusts halved.

• Carried interest taxation increased and moved into the Income Tax regime.

• Dividend tax rates increased by two percentage points.

• Savings-income tax rates increased by four percentage points.

• Property-income tax rates increased by four percentage points.

• VCT income tax relief cut from 30% to 20%.

• Most unused pension funds brought into the Inheritance Tax net.

• Agricultural and Business Property Relief capped.

• Inheritance Tax thresholds frozen until 2031.

• The non-dom regime replaced with a tougher residence-based system.

• VAT imposed on private school fees.

• Business-rates relief removed from private schools.

• The Stamp Duty surcharge on second homes and buy-to-let raised from 3% to 5%.

• The Furnished Holiday Lettings regime abolished.

• A new annual surcharge on homes worth £2 million or more.

• Pension salary-sacrifice NI relief capped at £2,000 a year.

• The bank surcharge doubled.

• Capital allowances for plant and machinery cut twice.

• Online gaming duty almost doubled.

• The Energy Profits Levy increased and extended, and its investment allowance scrapped.

• Vaping Products Duty brought in and tobacco duties increased above inflation.

• Vehicle Excise Duty increased for many new cars, with electric vehicles brought in.

• A pay-per-mile tax on electric and plug-in hybrid cars legislated for 2028.

• Air Passenger Duty increased.

• Making Tax Digital extended to more landlords and self-employed people.

It has been noted that the above measures combined represent one of the biggest transfers of wealth from households and businesses to the Treasury this country has ever seen. And yet still, record numbers of businesses are failing, the hospitality and leisure industry is seeing hundreds of closures every day, NHS staff are back out on strike demanding more pay, and living standards are predicted to remain at depressingly low levels.

IFS director Helen Miller recently warned "This decade looks set to be the worst decade for growth in household incomes on record.” Even the OBR's 10-year rolling average projection reveals that living standards for UK households are expected to experience virtually no growth, averaging less than 0.1% per year through the end of the decade.

So, with the UK economy on the slide, living standards stagnating, public services crumbling, and no credible plan for growth, the UK public need to be asking Andy Burnham and his Labour government one question…

How much more can we realistically be expected to put up with?