Tax cuts scraped from an empty barrel distract from the most stimulating budgets

So Jeremy Hunt has kicked off the election campaign with a very political budget.

There was a lot of shouting, but with the cupboard bare there weren’t as many giveaways as a Chancellor would have wanted on the eve of battle.

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As he presented what is likely to be the last budget before Britain goes to the polls this autumn, the somber faces behind him might suggest that Tory MPs thought it would not be enough to turn around the Conservatives’ dismal figures.

Even with some tax cuts, the government’s problem remains tax Costs are still at the highest level since 1947.

And no one really thinks this will fall rather than rise under Labor.

Plus, the cold, hard numbers are hard to run.

The budget’s fine print shows an additional £186.6 billion in stealth taxes on the next one five years: more than double the combined savings of £105.4 billion from the combined tax cuts of last November and today.

Also painful is the OBR’s prediction that net migration will remain around 300,000 indefinitely and that Tory tax changes have actually worsened Britain’s problems.

As more people move into higher tax brackets, it appears that fewer people are bothering to work harder.

But the shape of the Tory manifesto is in sight, with the abolition of National Insurance It will clearly become an important election issue.

The double taxation of wages through the NICS and income tax is a long-standing quirk of our complex tax system, but abolishing it completely would be eye-wateringly expensive.

That said, Hunt has cut earnings by 4p to 8p in the pound in just six months, hence abandoning the prospect of phasing it out completely over the next five years.

But since they are huge accounts Is the loss of state revenue really credible as we move towards national security, massive compensation payments and sustainable public spending?

I suspect we will be discussing this for much of the election campaign.

Hunt peppered his hour-long speech with attacks on the opposition parties and numerous name checks – and real checks – on key marginal seats that the government hopes to save at the election.

Given how often he mentioned his own seat in Surrey and the vicious puppet among the Liberal Democrats who could oust him, it’s clear the Chancellor is as concerned about his own seat as anyone else’s.

It was the most testy Budget I can remember, with numerous interventions from the Deputy Leader required after Labor had fought its way through the measures.

If this is the shape of the coming election campaign, it will be a very long year…