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| - A video shared on Facebook Reels captioned “Budget massively benefits the rich” lists a number of policies that were not included in the government's most recent Budget.
The video, which was shared on 11 March, less than a week after the government’s 2024 Spring Budget, shows a screenshot of a post on X (formerly Twitter) from 23 September 2022, which outlined some of the measures set out by then-chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng MP in a fiscal statement widely referred to as the ‘mini-budget’ that day.
In a caption that seems to be taken from a further X post in the same thread, the Facebook post says: “Budget massively benefits the rich.
- Millionaires pay same income tax rate as those on £50k
- Bankers can earn unlimited bonuses
- Big business owners face lower corporation tax than expected.”
These three policies all featured in the 2022 mini-budget, but only one of them was ever actually implemented. None of these measures featured in the most recent Budget, as the Facebook Reels post might be seen to suggest.
While the original post from X includes the hashtag #minibudget, which is still visible in the video, the Reels post does not make clear when the tweet was originally posted, and the video’s caption includes the hashtags #uknews and #financenews. Together with the timing of the video, these could mislead people into thinking that the measures described were part of the chancellor Jeremy Hunt MP’s March 2024 Budget.
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What was in the ‘mini-budget’?
The mini-budget included the abolition of the additional rate of income tax, meaning that earnings above £150,000 (the additional rate threshold at the time), would no longer be taxed at 45%, but instead at the same 40% rate as earnings above £50,271. This measure was cancelled by Mr Hunt less than two weeks after it was announced by his predecessor.
The mini-budget also included the decision to remove the cap on bankers’ bonuses, which at the time limited bonuses to twice a banker’s basic salary. This measure was not reversed, and the cap was lifted on 31 October 2023.
Finally, the mini-budget cancelled a planned increase in corporation tax from 19% to 25%. This decision was reversed by then-Prime Minister Liz Truss shortly afterwards, with the increase taking place as planned in April 2023.
Misleading claims about government policies have the potential to affect people’s opinions of politicians and how they choose to vote. We often see these types of claims spread widely online.
Image courtesy of HM Treasury
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