If a political party were to stand today on a platform of cutting financial support for low- and middle-income parents in order to pay for tax cuts for the more affluent, it wouldn’t get elected. It’s this reality that explains the paradox at the heart of modern British conservatism. Tory prime ministers and chancellors since 2010 have insisted they understand the struggle many families face in a time of anaemic wage growth and rising prices, and have promised that these families will be relatively protected from the deep spending cuts they have wielded.
But their deeds betray their words: every independent analysis of budgets since 2010 shows such promises to be lies. By 2021, Conservative chancellors will have delivered more than £80bn of tax cuts a year, including £22bn a year in income tax cuts. The bulk of the proceeds have found their way into the pockets of the most affluent half of families. Meanwhile, billions of planned cuts to tax credits and benefits mean low-income families and disabled people stand to lose eye-watering sums. The poorest fifth of families with children will, by 2020, be more than £3,000 a year worse off on average as a result of tax and benefit changes since 2010, while some of the most affluent families with children will find themselves £500 a year richer.
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