Britain needs much more help, Rishi – why not cut taxes now?

April storm

AS a grim era of economic woe begins, the Tories must brace for a battering.

The energy price cap will soar 54 per cent today. Food is rocketing. Council tax too. Fuel is exorbitantly expensive.

And though Chancellor Rishi Sunak belatedly spared millions this month’s tax rise, millions more WILL be fleeced.

In truth, little of this is the Tories’ fault. Covid forced them to borrow £400billion, then triggered rampant global inflation. Putin’s war wreaked further havoc. Much of the world is struggling. That’s not Tory economic mishandling.

But voters will blame them for the National Insurance hike and the puny efforts so far to help millions facing poverty.

Labour offers only a short-sighted, populist “windfall tax” on North Sea oil firms which would slash investment vital to our energy future and hammer pensions. But it has an open goal.

And one survey already gives it a healthy lead on managing taxes and public spending and cutting living costs. That’s calamitous for the Tories.

Britain needs much more help yet, Rishi. Why not cut taxes now, instead of the faraway land of 2024?

Soft on crime

THE Tories are trailing Labour on law and order too among swing voters — and on that score they have no excuses.

Fighting crime and securing borders should be their core strengths. Yet every day they impotently let hundreds of illegal migrants land on our shores and stay.

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And Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel merely gripe as woke cops put virtue-signalling before catching criminals and protecting the public.

Shambolic borders, crime-riddled streets, soaring prices. Not a pretty picture for No10 as local elections loom.

Now frack on

THE reprieve for Cuadrilla’s fracking wells must now launch a UK energy revolution.

The firm has a year’s stay of execution as the Government re-examines whether extracting shale is safe. It is, of course, unless earthquakes so tiny no one can feel them are deemed “unsafe”.

Anti-fracking campaigns succeeded in Britain and across Europe. They were reportedly part-bankrolled by Moscow to maintain its grip on gas supplies.

It knew shale could provide the UK with cheap home-made energy for decades. The Government must give it the nod.

Then start winning over the public too.

Blinkered BBC

THE BBC is marginally boosting its small minority of working-class staff. So what?

Its slavish liberal-Left politics are the real problem. Would they recruit a young openly pro-Brexit Tory? Fat chance.

Hire a few and the Beeb might just begin to understand the millions paying its bills.