Editorial Monday 4 March 2024 

Many of Monday’s newspapers continue to share their expectations for the Wednesday Budget. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is hoping to introduce tax cuts in the upcoming Budget – a key policy for Conservatives – but several front pages warn that a squeeze on public spending to fund the tax cuts could leave the country facing even worse living standards.

Elsewhere, other front-page stories are fairly varied but most are domestic stories. One that features across several publications is reports that King Charles is set to visit Australia later this year, despite his cancer diagnosis. 

Most of the back pages report on the tensions within F1’s Red Bull team after further allegations of inappropriate behaviour by Christian Horner emerged last week.

What stories are trending this morning? 

‘Budget speculation dominates’ 

The morning newspapers offer their predictions for Wednesday. Traditional left-leaning papers are leading on Budget cut warnings. 

The Mirror says schools, hospitals, the armed forces, councils, the police, prisons, the courts, and hospices are all in “crisis” and calls the situation the “price of Tory tax bribes”. The paper’s warning comes amid fears the chancellor is planning a ‘Budget tax giveaway.” 

For the i newspaper, the focus is on what the Budget could mean for the upcoming general election – expected later this year. 

The paper says Chancellor Hunt has fuelled “Tory jitters” of an election budget light on tax cuts after he stressed the need to be prudent. It adds that Hunt will look to squeeze spending on public services to fund such tax cuts as senior Tories say it is ‘now or never’ to reduce taxes. 

The Guardian reports on polling which suggested that tackling NHS waiting lists and fixing the UK’s other public services rank higher in importance for voters than the current levels of taxation.

The paper also features analysis from an anti-poverty charity which says tax cuts would risk condemning Britain to a “lost decade” for living standards and leaving families £1,900 a year worse off. 

The Financial Times reports that the chancellor will dig deep to find the money to fund such cuts to lift the spirits of Tory MPs ahead of a general election expected in the second half of the year.  

There’s a sense of downplaying for the right-leaning newspapers – with the expectation of the Express. The paper says Hunt wants to make personal tax cuts but thanks to the “gloomy economist forecasts” it’ll be tough – perhaps an attempt to win back Tory voters ahead of the election. 

The Daily Express asks “Can Hunt and PM pull rabbit out of hat?” The paper says the chancellor has talked with the prime minister about whether they can afford to introduce the 2p cut and that Tory MPs are “pushing for a big election sweetener.” The paper lays the blame for the fears around a tax cut on “gloomy economic forecasts” and says he “desperately” wants to make cuts to personal taxes but will struggle. 

The Daily Telegraph notes Hunt made clear in his interviews yesterday that he could not give details about any measures in the Budget, and says that his aim instead was to “manage expectations of tax cuts and paint a broad picture of a fiscal strategy”.

The front page also suggests Hunt is eyeing up a rise in business class flights to fund the tax cuts. 

The Times says Hunt hopes to introduce a 2p cut in national insurance by finding £9bn worth of spending cuts and other tax rises. A Treasury source is quoted saying: “With little room for manoeuvre, we are having to look at everything to make this work.”

The paper claims Hunt does not plan to spread the tax cut across both national insurance and income tax, as he had reportedly been considering, because cutting national insurance is cheaper.