"April's Armageddon: How Labour's Poor Choices Are Draining Your Wallet to Fund Benefits and Net Zero"

APRIL Fool’s Day may be over, but for millions of people the joke is still on them.

As Britain braces for yet another month of , the real sting is yet to land.

Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves put their hands in YOUR pocket to fund benefits and Net ZeroCredit: AFP Hardworking families are almost £1,000 worse off this year, while those on benefits get ever more cashCredit: Getty

up. The . Stealth taxes quietly tightening the screw.

And right at the centre of it all is , with her hand firmly in your pocket.

Let’s not sugar coat it. Armageddon April isn’t bad luck. It is down to the Chancellor’s choices.

From tomorrow, millions of households in England will see jump by five per cent on average.

Add in rising and a fuel duty squeeze looming in the background, and suddenly your family’s monthly ­budget looks like a horror show.

And just when you think you’ve clocked all the increases, along comes the silent killer — stealth taxes.

Frozen tax thresholds mean that, over time, more of your pay gets dragged into higher tax bands.

You work hard, get a pay rise, but you just end up paying ever more tax.

In fact, millions are being pulled into higher tax brackets without even realising it — a creeping tax trap where pay rises disintegrate.

At the same time, is busy selling a feel-good story about scrapping the .

Sounds compassionate. Sounds generous. Sounds like someone else is paying for it. They’re not. You are.

Because every extra pound handed out in benefits to those who choose to have large ­families has to come from somewhere — and that somewhere is you, the taxpayers.

The same taxpayers already watching their living standards slide backwards.

The same families who don’t get a state top-up when they decide to have another child.

The same people being told to tighten their belts while spending balloons.

That’s not fair, but here’s the bigger problem. All this pain isn’t making us richer. It’s making us poorer.

Hardworking families are almost £1,000 worse off this year, while those on get ever more cash.

Rachel Reeves said she would make us all wealthier, but Britain’s is flatlining.

We’re stuck in the slow lane while every indicator points in the wrong direction.

is up — hitting the cost of the weekly shop.

have stayed higher for longer, so you are paying more for your .

At the same time, is up, investment is weak and business confidence is at record lows. These are not coincidences.

Millions of households in England will see council tax jump by five per cent on averageCredit: Alamy Stock Photo

If you think help is on the way, think again, because the very people we rely on to create jobs and make us better off — businesses and entrepreneurs — are being battered from all sides and either being taxed out of existence or ­leaving the country altogether.

And can you blame them?

Higher taxes. Rising business costs. Sky-high energy bills. Endless red tape.

The result is plain to see on high streets right across the country, from Billericay to Barry.

It’s national self-sabotage on an industrial scale and Britain is weaker as a result.