I was on GB news last night in advance of the budget and providing a response regarding her rental property issue, you might be able to get a clip as I was talking on the transaction tax.... (6-7PM).
Slashing the Truss Transaction Tax By Cllr Stuart Fawcett Britain is getting back in business. The Chancellor is fighting Liz Truss’s transaction-tax legacy and selling our stock to the world’s markets. Stand by for a Budget that matches diligence with ambition. When I joined GB News last week, covering the Chancellor’s visit to the USA, I set out the unenviable position of Great Britain PLC’s accounts-a national balance sheet stretched to the limit and a Chancellor facing one of the toughest turnarounds in living memory. Unlike those opposition MPs who go abroad to talk Britain down, Rachel Reeves goes abroad to sell Britain-to bring back investment, confidence, and credibility. She’s the Chief Financial Officer of Great Britain PLC, pitching our product to the world’s investors. And she knows what every good business leader knows: you don’t sell stock by trashing the brand. I’m no economist, but I’ve run enough small businesses to know the first rule of finance: you don’t spend what the revenue can’t cover. Every household knows it too. When costs rise and bills mount, you focus on essentials and mind the pennies. That’s exactly what Rachel Reeves is doing-not for one family, but for 68 million of us. The only other option would be to take out a payday loan to cover the bills-and we all know that’s not the answer. Let’s look at how we got here. When Chancellor George Osborne took the keys to the Treasury in 2010, Britain’s debt-to-GDP ratio stood around 65 per cent. For every £100 the country produced, the government owed £65. Interest rates were at rock bottom-just 0.5 per cent-and borrowing was cheap. It was the perfect time to invest in growth. Instead, the Conservatives cut back. Fourteen years of austerity starved the economy of nutrition, and productivity became anaemic. Then came the Truss budget of 2022-a fiscal sugar rush that dissolved global confidence in Britain’s credit rating. In a matter of days, they crashed Great Britain PLC’s credit with reckless behaviour, and the cost of their essential borrowing sky-rocketed. It was the national equivalent of a payday loan: heavy public borrowing and tax cuts that reduced the revenue to repay it. By spooking the markets and weakening the pound, they added fuel to already rising inflation. The Bank of England had no choice but to hike interest rates faster-a double whammy that hit both mortgages and public spending, leaving households and government alike paying the price. The result was a new kind of levy on everyone-what I call the ‘Truss Transaction Tax’: the inflation and higher borrowing costs baked into everything we now buy. That is the tax Rachel Reeves is fighting hardest to cut-the stealth tax that punishes every household and business whenever money changes hands. When she took office, for every £100 Britain earned, the Government already owed around £96. Interest rates were over 5 per cent-the highest in a generation-and our national overdraft was costing billions more in repayments, diverting investment from our NHS, schools, and public services. Most politicians would have looked for short-term headlines. Reeves looked for long-term recovery. To write the cheques for investment, we need a bank balance that can cash them-and that’s what this Chancellor is building. Her plan is simple: stabilise and grow. She’s promised no increases in the three biggest household taxes-Income Tax, National Insurance, and VAT-to protect people’s pockets and keep spending power in the economy where it drives growth. Reeves is cutting the Truss Transaction Tax the responsible way-by cooling inflation first, easing interest rates, and restoring the conditions for genuine growth. Her critics sneer and call her “Rachel from Accounts.” But if that means a Chancellor who checks the numbers, protects the public purse and peoples pockets, as well as restoring credibility to Britain’s finances-then the insult says more about them than her. She’s not the accountant of decline-she’s the architect of ambition. Reeves’s mission is simple: rebuild the bank balance, restore confidence, and reignite growth. She’s turning the page from crisis management to cash-flow management-and the early signs are encouraging. Inflation is cooling, investor confidence is slowly returning, and Britain’s financial reputation is being rebuilt step by steady step. Don’t believe the doom and gloom. You’re seeing the groundwork for a Budget that will power Britain back to peak performance.
The lesson from Caerphilly: politics of place matter — Westminster parties cannot rely on national politics alone to hold on or win People don’t want politics that changes the world — they want politics that changes their world. When I spoke on GB News this weekend about the Caerphilly by-election, I said this wasn’t simply about who won - it was about why people voted the way they did, and where it was that mattered. To me it’s clear: people are driven by place, community and family far more than by party loyalty or promises. Across Britain, people are asking a new question of their politicians: what are you doing here-outside my front door, on my street, in my town? They want politics that feels local again - visible, responsive with delivery. We have a constituency system in the UK, and people are using it to say clearly: the politics of place is back. Plaid Cymru’s win in Caerphilly proves that point. Their campaign wasn’t world-beating or ideological; it was anchored in Welsh identity, community life and local pride. It spoke not only about Wales, but about this part of Wales. That sense of belonging and rootedness mattered more than any national slogan. People do want change - but not the kind of change that’s being done to their communities from on high. They’re watching reforms, reorganisations and national policies reshape their towns and local services, and asking whether that’s what their community actually desires. For decades, many places have experienced rapid change - in housing, demographics, on their high street and in the standard of public services - often driven by government decisions, or the absence of them, made far from where those impacts are felt. Immigration also plays a part in this consideration. Where people see its effect is in their communities. The most emotive example is when concentrations of unvetted migrants are placed in hotels within their neighbourhoods. It touches a nerve on two points. First: who are they, and are they a risk to me and my family? - let alone the hotel staff left alone with them. Second: I work my fingers to the bone to keep a roof over my head and provide for my family, yet I’m still struggling to make ends meet. These people - who have broken the law to get here - are all-expenses-paid (by my taxes) with liberty to roam free. This is shortly followed by another question: why are we labelled racist for seeing it like this? Reform UK’s result was testament to responding to people with these concerns, many of them former Labour voters. However, whilst national political messages and promises can take a party a long way they’ve shown it only goes so far. It was a credible outcome because their message resonates, and it could be argued that they have now become the UK’s most active political movement. But campaigns are only won when that national vision connects to the politics of community and place. Reform UK haven’t yet demonstrated investment in that connection in the same way they have in the big issues and big media. If that changes, the shockwave at the ballot box will be noticeable; until it does, a credible second place will remain their mantle. Labour must do the same though. As a party it has pedigree in delivering locally, but it needs a better network of consultation from doorstep to Downing Street - to demonstrate its integrity in this regard again. Crucially, Labour should also reflect that however its harshest critics may label it, last year it won a landslide. Labour is in charge and it needs to show more confidence in being so. People don’t just buy the best campaigns. Reform’s might have been strong nationally, and Labour is the party in power, but if people aren’t feeling the changes they asked for at the general election, credibility evaporates — and Labour voters will rightly take their loyalty elsewhere.
