The headline figure in the Chancellor’s budget was a £40bn tax increase, mainly through a higher-than-expected £25bn increase in employers’ national insurance contributions.

As you can see in the chart below, this is the biggest tax increase budget in over three decades, since the budget presented by John Major’s Tory government in 1993.

And of course it will raise the tax burden even higher than it is now.

It has grown tremendously as a result of the pandemic in 2020, and today’s announcements will take it even higher, to record levels.

By the end of Parliament in 2029 this will be even higher than the Labor manifesto suggests.

According to the chancellor, these tax rises – along with more government borrowing – are needed to fund public services which he says have been left in abysmal state by the Conservatives.

The chart below shows how much more borrowing will be required in today’s budget compared to the Conservative Party’s last budget in March.

However, what emerges here is a picture where the numbers are not that high, certainly not as high as the government wants.

It has made growth its number one mission, but the forecasts below suggest it will be pretty tame.