Conservative Members of Parliament have called on the Chancellor to keep her promises to the country to not raise taxes after last year’s disastrous £40 billion tax raising Budget.

MPs also reminded the Government that they were elected on a manifesto commitment to not increase National Insurance, the basic, higher, or additional rates of Income Tax or VAT. Despite only setting out £7 billion in additional taxes in their manifesto, Labour raised £40 billion in tax at the 2024 Autumn Budget, as well as increasing borrowing by altering the Government’s fiscal rules.

Much of the £40 billion increase was through changes to Employer National Insurance Contributions. Those measures have seen 11 downgrades to growth forecasts, and 120,000 jobs lost in the last year.

Caroline used the Opposition Day Debate to highlight the impact of tax rises on her Gosport Constituency and the unintended consequences of the Government’s search for more revenue. In particular, Caroline pointed to the 31% increase in youth unemployment which she ascribed to opportunities drying up hospitality, retail, and services sectors. 80,000 jobs have been lost in the hospitality and retail sectors in the last year.

In the House of Commons Government Treasury Minister James Murray heard Caroline praise the work of charities and volunteer organisations in Gosport, Lee on the Solent, Stubbington, and Hill Head, and raise the alarm over the growing level of pessimism in the third sector. She pointed out that last year’s tax hike added a combined £1.4 billion to the wage bills of more than 44,000 charities nationwide, and that a third of charities were reducing their workforce as a result.

Concluding her remarks, Caroline said: “Many people in my constituency were shocked by last year’s Budget. That was not what the Government promised when they were in opposition or at the general election. We now fear that the Chancellor will go big on tax rises, despite categorically saying last year that she had wiped the slate clean and would not be coming back for more. My concern for my constituents is that they have seen no tangible benefit from last year’s Budget, just pain, and they will undoubtedly shoulder the burden whenever new measures are announced.”

Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride said: “Right at the centre of this motion is the single word “trust”—the trust that Labour Members lost with the British electorate. They lost it when they promised not to put taxes on farms, and did so; when they said they would not be means-testing the winter fuel payment, yet did; and when they said they would not be putting up taxes left, right and centre, but did exactly that when they came into office.”