Hunt faces the wrath of Tory donors

The Autumn Statement was truly awful: no rabbits, no silver linings and no growth. But amid the many groups suffering this Christmas, spare a thought for high-earners — those much-despised but ever-necessary wealth creators. The 45p top rate of tax now applies to anyone earning over £125,140, with fiscal drag pulling many more in. The energy profits levy will increase total oil and gas tax from 65 per cent to 75 per cent in January (initially 40 per cent) with corporation tax to go up from 19 per cent to 25 per cent.

Soaking the rich might be good politics, but Steerpike understands that hiking taxes hasn’t been pain-free so far for Jeremy Hunt. Shortly after delivering his speech on Thursday, the Chancellor of the Exchequer had to meet some of the Tories’ most generous party donors at an evening reception: most of whom weren’t too keen to see their largesse rewarded with a higher tax bill. One fumed to Mr S shortly before meeting with Hunt, whose performance was less than compelling, that the government is ‘treating us like a piggy bank.’ He said:

“

The idea that this is windfall tax is a lie. It’s a confiscatory supertax on all profits from zero.… third-world governments know how to do this better than the UK… It’s lose, lose, lose – it’s bad for the economy, it’s bad for UK energy security during a war with Russia and it’s even bad for the party… There was no dialogue with the energy sector. Smaller North Sea may be reinvesting in Nigeria and Ghana and not in UK resources and people... too must trust has been broken.

Good luck funding that next election campaign eh Jezza?