The Chancellor’s Budget will put more money in people’s pockets and the economy has “turned round the corner”, according to the Economic Secretary to the Treasury Bim Afolami.
He told GB News: “Really, the most important thing we've done here is to put more money in their pockets…that isn't going to happen literally at this moment, but in the weeks and months to come.
“With inflation continuing to come down, with mortgage rates continuing to come down, and with those incomes really coming into their pay packets, I hope that your viewers will see the actions of what we've done today and that they will benefit directly from that.”
Asked by Martin Daubney if the Government was giving a real cut in taxes, he said: “We’ve very aggressively tried to eliminate this double tax on work, National Insurance for working people.
“We've begun and continue the process of bringing their tax rates down and those take-home pay numbers…they are going to feel better off than they otherwise would have done without those National Insurance cuts.
“Now, I completely understand that people will feel, well over the last few years that taxes have gone up for them and that's true. And the reason for that was, as a result of the pandemic, the Government spent over £400 billion supporting British people and British families.
“But now is the time, over the last six months or so, cutting National Insurance in the Autumn Statement, cutting it again now, getting rid of that double tax on work. This is our path to lower taxes.
“And we're doing this all at the same time as maintaining high levels of public services and increasing the spending in public services and also making sure that we're improving the productivity so that it actually it gets to the frontline as effectively as possible.”
He added: “We're doing all of that in a sensible balanced way, but it's not going to happen immediately. It is going to happen with time but they've got to stick with the plan, the economy's turned round the corner and we will deliver for them.”
WATCH ABOVE.
