Tory MP Jonathan Gullis has suggested Brits are now better off because of the Conservative government – despite plenty of evidence to the contrary.
The backbencher started listing the ways his party has supposedly improved life for his constituents while in the Commons on Tuesday.
He began by saying families in Stoke-on-Trent North would be ”£1,800 a year” better off because of the National Insurance cut from 12p to 8p in the pound.
Actually, this benefit is outweighed by fiscal drag – when people end up paying more tax than before, because the government has frozen tax thresholds instead of putting them up in line with inflation.
As the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said: “Tax changes in this autumn statement reduce the tax burden by 0.7% of GDP, but it still rises in every year to a post-war high of 37.3% of GDP by 2028-29.”
Gullis also claimed: “The freezing of the fuel duty means the motorists will be able to get around without being unfairly charged at the pump.”
Sunak cut fuel duty by 5p per litre in March 2022 – and Hunt extended that by another year in his Budget – but half of what motorists pay at the pump is still tax.
Gullis continued: “Money from this government has meant we’ve been able to cut bus fares in Stoke-on-Trent by a third, so people can travel around.”
Research from the BBC found last year that the number of bus services in Stoke-on-Trent has halved in the past eight years.
Gullis also claimed Stoke-on-Trent had ”£56 million from the levelling up fund” – although critics pointed out the cuts to local authority funding over the years overshadow any benefits from Levelling Up.
The Tory backbencher also pointed to recent funding for a local sports centre, claiming Labour “couldn’t be bothered to spend a pound to save it back in 2017”.
He failed to mention that under the Conservatives, many local authorities have lost funding.
More than half have warned they will go under during the next parliamentary term - even though nine in 10 UK residents can expect to pay more council tax in the coming years.
The backbencher concluded: “Isn’t the reality that we have a clear plan that is going to help the families of our great constituencies, particularly in Stoke-on-Trent, while Labour are going to borrow more, tax us higher, and lead us back into recession like they did back in 2008, 2009?”
Actually, the Tories have overseen two economic recessions in the last four years – one during the Covid lockdown and another in the latter half of 2023, months after Sunak vowed to grow the economy.
The Tories have also taken the tax burden to a 70-year high.