London: A new tax on electric vehicles is just one of the shocks for British families in a national budget that has highlighted the grim state of the United Kingdom and the desperate need to shore up confidence in its finances.

Motorists will pay three pence for every mile they drive in their EVs from next year under an excise duty meant to help fund the nation’s roads, starting a regime that Australia has pondered for years as a way to replace fuel excise.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is grappling with a UK economy beset by a productivity slump.Credit: Getty Images

The excise is part of a tax grab worth £26 billion ($53 billion) from a Labour government that came to power with a healthy majority but has since slumped in the polls and turned on itself in a leadership soap opera.

The sour surprises are unlikely to help Prime Minister Keir Starmer when his Labour mates cannot stop murmuring about a leadership spill and their great rival, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, is ahead in the polls.

The budget includes a higher tax on expensive properties, a sugar tax on milkshakes, a tourism tax on holiday homes, a gambling tax, a higher tax on retirement funds and an import duty on smaller parcels bought from foreign stores online.

Worse, for millions of workers, is a decision to leave income tax rates unchanged as employees ascend into earnings brackets with higher taxes, courtesy of inflation and wage rises.

Australians know this as bracket creep, and the British call it fiscal drag. This alone will add £8.3 billion ($16 billion) to government coffers.

British EV owners will now pay 3 pence per mile driven, which will be assessed at annual checks.Credit: Getty Images

And all of this is on........

© Brisbane Times