Boris’s Tax Hike Is a Defining Moment for U.K. Conservatives
Having thrown away their reputation for tax-cutting, how will the Tories position themselves next?
Gulp.
Photographer: Toby Melville/AFP
There are moments in a government’s lifetime that symbolize a change of ideological direction. Last week U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to raise taxes to pay for social care and bail out the National Health Service was one of them.
However worthy the objectives, the result will leave the country with the highest tax burden since 1945. Crucially for “Brand Boris,” it means that Britain has finally buried the post-Brexit idea of becoming Singapore-on-Thames — a free-wheeling, low-tax, light-regulation economy that sits offshore a high-tax continent. Critics on the Right are even charging that Johnson has turned the Conservatives into “Blue Labour,” a tax-raising party that’s focused on public services and tinged with nationalism.