was in listening mode. you ll have noticed that the top of the government is in listening mode at the moment. and, erm. but the cabinet took the decision, and i think that it s important to recognise that actually as a tax, it will i think sort of 50% of the revenue s raised by the top 14% of taxpayers, and there s six million people that pay nothing at all. so, arm, you know, it isn t the, eh, the blunt instrument that some people have described it as. there are calls from some conservative backbenchers for the rise to be delayed for a year. mel stride, who chairs the treasury select committee, told newsnight that he believed there was wiggle room in the public finances to allow it. the economy is doing quite a lot better than the obr forecast at the time of the last budget, so we ve got that additional fiscal headroom. and the question then becomes, how do you use that? asked yesterday if the rise would go ahead, the prime minister said it was absolutely vital that covid backlogs a
that would be disappointed, certainly no sign of a new era of high skill, high wage productivity economics in that. and the obr point to, yes, a hangoverfrom the pandemic that affects 2% of the long run growth, but they say that brexit, they still stick by the idea that brexit will affect it more than that, by 4%, and they also say that leaving the eu has also been compounded some of the supply chain challenges we have had. a number of issues going on, lots of measures. the chancellor is keen to point out that he thinks measures he has taken will increase long term growth and that the obr forecast may prove pessimistic. he doesn tjust as i have this change in the economy, he really needs it to make the numbers work. . ~ really needs it to make the numbers work. ., ,, , ., if you want to find out eight ways today s budget will directly affect you, from universal credit changes to the price of a drink, visit our website at bbc.co.uk/news or you can use the bbc news app.