Regarding MP Mr Dean Russell’s column in last week’s Watford Observer, I am not as convinced as Mr Russell is when he says he is delighted with the Chancellor’s budget and that the “budget will make a difference”.

With the country facing its worst winter crisis for more than 40 years, the Chancellor’s high taxing budget will send the UK economy crashing on to the rocks.

Rising energy prices, rising fuel prices, tens of billions of pounds of tax increases, inflationary pressures and an environmental activist agenda for net zero are fuelling a cost of living crisis for ordinary families.

Raising taxes is not the solution to ballooning government debt. The scale of this government’s borrowing has not been seen since after each world war.

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Tax levels are already at a level not seen since the 1940s. The Bank of England predicts that inflation could rise above five per cent by early next year. Mr Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England, recently said that the central bank “will have to act” to tackle inflationary pressures which almost inevitably means interest rates rising.

Raising the Bank’s base rate from its historic low of 0.1 per cent will have dramatic and tangible impacts. Millions of working people are already feeling pressured by rising costs of paying more for food, more for fuel and more for their bills.

Along with the Government’s disastrous decision to freeze the income tax personal allowance rate until 2026, it will only make the poor worse off.

Sir Peter Bottomly, MP for Worthing, says he struggled on £81,000 a year salary, so it is quite obvious Mr Russell’s own backbenchers cannot agree with his delight regarding the Chancellor’s budget.

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If Tory backbenches cannot manage on £81,000 salaries then what chance do the elderly or the poorest families have with the piffling amount of income they have to survive on each week?

So, unlike Mr Russell, MP for Watford, I am not impressed with the Chancellor’s October budget.

Ernie MacKenzie
Gammons Lane, Watford