Budget 'everyday fixes' rolled out as Tories mock cheaper gherkins
Five 'everyday fixes' were announced the morning before the budget, including scrapping import tariffs on more than 100 products. Shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith dismissed the package as 'an insult to families'.
Budget 'everyday fixes' rolled out as Tories mock cheaper gherkins
Tariff cuts on beans and gherkins
The government led by Andy Burnham put forward five 'everyday fixes' on the morning before the budget, with the removal of import tariffs on more than 100 products the headline measure. The list takes in baked beans, chocolate and gherkins. Combined with tariff suspensions already introduced, the Treasury says households could save up to £21 a year on their food shop.
The tariff removal is also aimed at other groups:
- farmers facing higher fertiliser bills
- households that rely on kerosene heating oil
Mileage, parental pay and carers
The chancellor is locking in the 55p per mile tax-free rate for the first 10,000 business miles and lifting the rate above 10,000 miles from 25p to 35p, a change the government says supports around 3 million people. According to the Treasury, that is worth £120 a year in extra tax savings for a worker doing 6,000 business miles, rising to as much as £300 for someone driving 15,000.
Parental pay is being extended to more than 150,000 additional parents a year, among them self-employed dads and partners who previously missed out. Eligible parents get two weeks of support worth up to £194 a week.
The Carer's Allowance 'cliff edge' is also going. Unpaid carers will no longer lose the entire allowance for earning a penny over the Weekly Earnings Limit - instead, £1 tapers away for every extra £1 earned. The limit is equivalent to 16 hours at the National Living Wage. Under the old rule, hundreds of thousands of carers were ordered to repay large sums after their weekly earnings inadvertently crept over the threshold; that requirement is being scrapped.
Tories: 'an insult to families'
The Conservative response came from shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith, who argued that inflation has already wiped out the benefits of the measures. He blamed 'rampant borrowing, soaring taxes and an utter inability to cut spending' for that, and dismissed the cheaper gherkins as 'an insult to families hammered by Labour's tax rises'.
"Shoppers face rising costs at the till and families are struggling to make ends meet, but Burnham's plan is cheaper gherkins. This is an insult"
Mixed reception
Unison general secretary Andrea Egan welcomed the package, particularly the permanent mileage uplift her union had campaigned for, but said a bolder approach is needed because the cost of food and fuel will keep soaring. She said that approach should be 'based on making the wealthy pay their fair share and improving the lives of working-class communities in a more enduring way'.
"But the cost of essentials, including food and fuel, is going to keep soaring, meaning breathing space will quickly be closed down."
Also in the package, hundreds more Post Office drop boxes will bring the total to 1,000, alongside upgrades to 600 Post Office branches by the end of the financial year.
The budget is due the day after the announcements. In the Commons, foreign secretary Ed Miliband takes questions at 11.30am, and security minister Dan Jarvis is expected to give a statement to MPs about the government's 'Be Ready' resilience advice after 12.30pm.
