Reeves set to announce more tax rises in 16 months than Gordon Brown did in 10 YEARS… as Chancellor blames Brexit ahead of Budget
Rachel Reeves faces announcing more tax rises in 16 months than Gordon Brown did over a decade in the Treasury.
Estimates by the OBR watchdog show the former Chancellor's fiscal events between 1997 and 2007 were 'scored' as adding just under £59billion a year to revenues.
In comparison, Ms Reeves has already racked up nearly £44billion since entering No11 - including the biggest tax-raising Budget on record last October.
The IFS think-tank has warned that she has a £22billion black hole to fill in her package on November 26.
But it suggested last week that Ms Reeves might want to drum up an extra £20billion to ensure she does not have to come back yet again for more cash.
Other economists have calculated that the government could have an even bigger gulf of £50billion in the public finances.
Any moves on that scale would see Ms Reeves overtake Mr Brown in the tax-raising stakes.
Rachel Reeves has already announced nearly £44billion of tax increases since entering No11 - including the biggest tax-raising Budget on record last October
The OBR maintains a database going back to 1970 including all the tax policies 'scored' at fiscal events, adjusted for GDP growth to the present day.
The figures do not account for measures raising more or less than anticipated - and miss out some smaller changes up to the watchdog's creation in 2010.
But they give the best indication available of the size of packages announced by Chancellors.
Mr Brown's first Budget in June 1997 saw him add £17.2billion to the burden, followed by another increase of £7.3billion in March 1998.
That was followed up with three net tax-cutting events in the run-up to the 2001 general election.
However, from that point Mr Brown heaped more pain on Brits with successive revenue-boosters in Budgets and pre-Budget Reports (PBRs).
In the wake of his last fiscal event in March 2007, the scorecards showed that he had announced policies to add a net £58.7billion a year to the tax take.
Ms Reeves' first Budget in October last year was estimated by the OBR to raise the burden by £41.54billion.
That was the highest on record, ahead of Norman Lamont's bumper £40.8billion raid in Spring 1993 following the Black Wednesday sterling crisis.
The Spring statement this year was scored as adding a further £2.2billion.
Ms Reeves has been blaming Brexit, austerity, Nigel Farage and the Tories for the country's poor economic performance.
Productivity downgrades, slowing growth and humiliating policy U-turns have added to her woes.
A 'mansion tax' style annual charge on property, extending the hated freeze tax thresholds, and battering pensions are among the options being floated to bring in cash.
Addressing fellow finance ministers at IMF meetings in Washington DC last week, Ms Reeves said: 'The UK's productivity challenge has been compounded by the way in which the UK left the European Union.'
She cited the OBR's calculation of a 4 per cent long-term hit to the economy relative to staying in the EU.
