Former defence secretary Sir Grant Shapps has described Chancellor Rachel Reeves's Budget as 'chaotically delivered' and 'catastrophic' for the country. The Conservative former MP received a knighthood at Windsor Castle on Wednesday, hours after Ms Reeves delivered her second Budget, which included a £26 billion tax hike.
Sir Grant, who also served as home secretary, business secretary and transport secretary under four prime ministers, criticised the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) after it accidentally published full Budget details shortly before the Chancellor's statement. He said: 'I was getting ready to come here, but helpfully, the OBR leaked the entire Budget in advance, so I got to hear the Budget without actually hearing the Budget. I'm afraid that OBR mistake is rather in line with the calamitous nature of all the chaos that surrounded the Budget for the last seven months.'
The Budget measures include a freeze on income tax thresholds, national insurance charges on salary-sacrificed pension contributions, and higher taxes on dividends, property and savings income. Sir Grant said: 'I was looking at a clip of what I said before the election, that if they win, they will tax your job, they'll tax your car, they'll tax your pension, they'll tax your home. And they've now taxed all four of those things. A catastrophic Budget. A chaotically delivered Budget and catastrophic for the country.'
Sir Grant was knighted in Rishi Sunak's resignation honours list after losing his Welwyn Hatfield seat to Labour's Andrew Lewin in last year's general election. He said the Princess Royal remarked on his long service when he received the honour. He added: 'It's been an honour to serve. I do think public service is a real honour to have been involved with. You take a lot of knockbacks, that goes with the territory, but, fundamentally, you do it to serve the public and by and large, you're just doing it to make the world a better place.'
