Sunak’s government is trying to curb social discontent with new aid

The UK will avoid a terrible recession, albeit just barely and at a very high social cost. The British government is also aware of this and has therefore presented a budget that includes more help for punished citizens. Some measures have been shaken up, hoping to reduce, or at least curb, social discontent in the country a wave of strikes. and by the way improve the prospects for the tories in the municipal elections in May and the general elections in 2024.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) points out that, thanks to the adopted measures, the British economy will not enter recession this year and will meet Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s goals to reduce inflation and debt. Thus, according to his forecast, the economy will begin to grow. “We are going according to plan and the plan is working,” said the Minister of Economy. Jeremy Hunt in the Lower House.

The budget extends the electricity bill assistance scheme, estimated at £94,000m (€107,300m), but also includes an additional €25,100m for other subsidies, such as pay for kindergarten children between 9 months and 3 years old when both parents work. Hunt also announced a reduction in the alcohol tax which will be applied only in cult pubs, a measure that he presented as one of the freedoms gained from s Brexit.

But not all were tax cuts or subsidies, the minister confirmed that the government will increase the profit tax from 19 to 25 percent and announced reforms to prevent early retirement, especially of doctors.

Hunt assured that the Government wants to resolve the existing labor conflicts with conductors in trains and the London Underground, with nurses and other health personnel or with teachers, who have organized a new day of strike this Wednesday. However, the minister made it clear will not make concessions that feed inflationwhich will make it difficult to reach an agreement.

labor leader, Keir Starmer, instead he argued that the British economy needed a “major operation” after thirteen years of Conservative governments and dismissed the budget as bandage” not enough to reverse the “path of decay” the country is on.