Britain is doomed. Middle England has only one way out

The Government is banking on our quiet surrender to ever higher taxes and an ever larger state. This is a gross miscalculation

23 August 2025 

Daily Telegraph 

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Britain is going into administration. GDP is flatlining, debt is spiralling, productivity has collapsed to levels not seen since Stovepipe hats and frock coats. The dashboard is flashing red, the situation so dire that senior economists are now warning we face a 1970s-style bailout. And Rachel Reeves is floundering like an accountant at Enron, blind to the reality that her Labour Government is now the greatest threat to our national prosperity.

As with shareholders and staff at a company headed for insolvency, the British public is seizing what it can before the lights go out. The wealthy are moving abroad – to the UAE, Australia, Singapore – taking their capital and talent with them. The UK is losing thousands of millionaires; after a week of pitch-rolling for the next round of tax raids, many more will doubtless be packing their toothbrushes.

Virtually every levy – capital gains tax, inheritance tax, pension tax relief, perhaps even income tax, National Insurance or VAT – could be up for grabs. On Saturday, the Treasury signalled an extension of the six-year freeze on income tax thresholds – a stealth raid on the “working people” Reeves keeps promising she’ll protect. On Tuesday, it floated the idea of a mansion tax on the most expensive properties. This will all be framed, with wearying predictability, in terms of “redistribution” and asking the rich to “pay a little more”, but much of the burden will fall on Middle England. On those who cannot afford to emigrate, who have children in school or will stay to care for ageing parents.

Tony Blair wanted to give working class people “middle class lives”; a quarter of a century later Starmer is immiserating the middle classes. But if the Prime Minister thinks they will continue to meekly shoulder the burden of ever higher taxes without consequence he is making a terrible miscalculation. Look at our net recipient ratio – the fact that 53 per cent of Brits receive more in benefits, including the imputed value of health and education, than they pay in tax – and it’s clear many are already rebelling... by giving up.

Consider this dreadful thought: between the generosity of the welfare state and the insane cost of housing and childcare, it is entirely possible for a family on benefits to be better off than one with two parents on £50,000 each. And if you are a “higher earner”, you will only keep £38 of every extra £100 you earn between £100,000 and £125,000.

So no wonder people are throwing in the towel. The contract between the government and Middle England – work hard, provide, save for retirement – has been shattered. Worse still, many young people are quitting before they’ve even begun: almost 950,000 16 to 24-year-olds were classed as Neet in June, up by 26,000 compared to the same period last year.

It is worth asking, against this backdrop, who can blame the unions for demanding inflation-busting pay increases? They’re simply trying to extract as much from the state as they can before the well runs dry: more money, no job losses, no demands to improve productivity. Yes, by accelerating our economic demise these unions are putting future pay deals at risk, but that won’t stop them from ruthlessly pursuing their own interests. Preaching to them will be no more effective today than it was under Jim Callaghan.

The Government ought to be considering strike bans; instead it is substantially strengthening the unions’ hands with its the Employment Rights Bill, which will reduce voting thresholds for industrial action, reduce the period of notice that employers receive before walkouts and extend the length of time a strike mandate lasts before it has to be renewed.

When you allow people to keep more of what they earn, they work more. When you raise taxes to funnel more money into an increasingly dysfunctional public sector, you get less wealth. But Labour doesn’t understand – or worse, doesn’t care – that you cannot deliver growth by clobbering a shrinking, demoralised middle class. Four more years.