Hunt’s stealth tax raid to hit Blue Wall hardest including his own seat

17 Mar 2023

EMBARGO: For Immediate Release

Marginal Conservative seats in Blue Wall will see highest number of taxpayers dragged into higher rate
Chancellor’s own seat among those hardest hit by stealth tax raid
Lib Dems accuse Conservatives of “betraying former heartlands”

The Liberal Democrats have warned that Jeremy Hunt’s stealth tax raid will hit families in the Blue Wall hardest, including in the Chancellor’s own seat.

Analysis by the party has revealed the constituencies in England with the highest number of taxpayers expected to be dragged into the higher rate over the next year. 66 of the worst hit 100 seats in the country are Conservative held, while 27 are Labour and five Liberal Democrat.

The Cities of London and Westminster is the worst hit constituency in the country, while Dominic Raab’s seat of Esher and Walton is fifth. Jeremy Hunt’s South West Surrey seat is the 16th worst impacted, with 5,600 of his own constituents expected to be dragged into the higher rate over the coming financial year.

Others in the top 50 constituencies hardest hit by stealth taxes include Wokingham, Hitchin and Harpenden, South Cambridgeshire and Guildford, all of which have Conservative MPs defending ultra-slim majorities against the Liberal Democrats.

Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Sarah Olney MP said:

“This is a brutal tax raid on the Blue Wall in the middle of the worst cost of living crisis on record. The Conservative party has betrayed their former heartlands in the South and clobbered hard-working families with endless tax hikes.

“Families in the Blue Wall know that the Conservative party will not stand up for them in Westminster. A vote for a Conservative MP is a vote for unfair tax hikes and weaker public services - and we will make sure everyone in the Blue Wall knows that.

“Britain’s hard-working middle is rebelling against a Conservative party which takes them for granted.”

ENDS

Notes to Editor

Liberal Democrat analysis on the number of additional higher rate taxpayers in 2023-24 by constituency is available here.

Methodology:

In response to a Written Parliamentary Question tabled by the Liberal Democrats, the Treasury provided its latest breakdown of higher rate taxpayers by parliamentary constituency. The latest data goes up to 2019-20. The parliamentary written question and accompanying figures are available here.
The spreadsheet provided by the Treasury contains higher rate taxpayers combined with additional rate (45p) taxpayers. To filter out the additional rate taxpayers, we used HMRC table 2.2, which includes a breakdown of basic, higher and additional rate taxpayers in the UK for every financial year up to 2022-23.
We then shared the number of new 2023-24 higher rate taxpayers provided by the Library among parliamentary constituencies, based on the number of their 2019-20 higher rate taxpayers.
This gives us an estimated constituency breakdown of the number of new higher rate taxpayers in 2023-24.