I suspect the majority would plump for her politically disastrous decision to scrap the winter fuel payment for 10million pensioners within weeks of the July 2024 election, which crushed Labour’s popularity at a stroke. It was designed to make her look tough, an iron Chancellor, but her reputation turned to rust when she was forced into a humiliating U-turn. But I don’t think that was her worst mistake.
There are a string of other contenders, such as Reeves’s campaign of doom before her maiden Budget, and the chaos surrounding her second, when she floated a controversial 2p income tax rise then quickly did another U-turn, while a mass of leaks turned the whole thing into a right old mess. There are many more but I don’t have space. I’d love to see new chancellor John Healey reverse her biggest errors in his upcoming Budget on October 28.
He could start by scrapping her decision to slap inheritance tax on unused pension pots, which comes into force next April. This will deter people from saving for a pension, as families could end up losing up to two thirds to HMRC if policyholders die at the wrong time. It will also pile the administrative burden on grieving families, who must sort out all the IHT due within six months, with penalties if they don’t.
Family farms often have to pass to the next generation because they’re the only people who understand them well enough to keep them going. But that never seemed to occur to Reeves. I sometimes wonder if the only thing she knows about the countryside is that Harry and Meghan live there.
She was forced into another humiliating U-turn but the threat lingers. I’m now crossing my fingers, having read reports that Healey wants to scrap her family farms raid altogether.
I’d love Healey to come through for farmers. But there’s a problem. He’s in a total mess, with his fiscal headroom disappearing by the day. There’s even talk he’ll have to hike taxes by £35billion just to balance the books. She’s left him in a complete hole. Which is stopping him from reversing policies he knows are ridiculous. It’s the final slap in the face for our new chancellor.
If anybody in the Treasury is reading this, please, please, please do the right thing by farmers. It’ll give us something to cheer amid the misery fest to come, and reverse one of Reeves’s biggest blunders. Unfortunately, thanks to the mess she left, her policy may yet win through. And farmers will be the losers. But then, we all are.
