Rachel Reeves just set ticking time bomb under UK - and it’s about to blow up in her face

We’re seven days into so-called Awful April, when a host of taxes and household bills increase. This April will be even more awful than usual, thanks to the Chancellor. Not that Rachel Reeves will accept any responsibility. She'll just shrug and blame the war in Iran. We can't blame her for the Middle East, but we can blame her for leaving us less prepared than any other major economy to withstand it.

Council tax, water, the TV licence, mobile and broadband bills all rose from April 1. Fuel prices are climbing too, with diesel pushing £1.80 a litre and petrol above £1.55. Mortgage rates are up, adding £1,800 a year to the average borrower's costs.

There is one apparent bright spot. The energy price cap has fallen to £1,641. But that's only down to a sneaky sleight of hand by PM Keir Starmer, and it won't last. From July, the energy cap is forecast to hit £1,929. It could race past £2,000 from October. The cost-of-living crisis is back with a vengeance. And right on cue, Reeves has chosen this moment to tighten the screw.

April 6 brought a new tax year, but the same old income tax threshold freeze. Basic rate taxpayers could pay up to £700 more this year, while higher-rate taxpayers will be hit for £3,500, according to AJ Bell. Thanks to Reeves, the freeze will run until 2031. Inheritance tax bands are frozen too, dragging more families into the net. Capital gains tax and dividend tax allowances are also stuck. For good measure, Reeves just slapped a 2% surcharge on dividend tax rates.

She’s also destroyed the job market. Her insane £26 billion National Insurance raid on employers has driven unemployment to a five-year high of 5.2%. That’s 325,000 more people out of work, thanks to her. Imagine hiking jobs taxes just as AI starts destroying them too. Only this Chancellor could be so daft. Younger workers are being squeezed out entirely, priced out by higher NI and two major minimum-wage hikes. Almost a million young people don't work. Many never will. Now here’s the terrifying bit.

While hammering taxpayers, Reeves has splurged billions more on benefits, including £3.5 billion on axing the two-child benefit cap. She's hiked Universal Credit by an inflation-busting 6.2%. Who foots the bill? Taxpayers. Work doesn't pay in Britain. Joblessness does. The result? Nearly 11 million working-age people don’t work, with almost three million stuck on sickness benefits.

This is a ticking time bomb under the UK’s finances. It leaves fewer workers paying ever more tax to support a growing number of benefit claimants, as the population ages and the cost of pensions and healthcare soar. And Reeves already borrows £150 billion a year.

Incredibly, Labour is now lining up a system of online self-service sickness benefit claims. This will trigger a surge in applications and make getting approval a breeze. All claimants need do is type in some vague mental health issue, and the cash is theirs. Guess who pays? Taxpayers, naturally.

This is how Britain goes broke. Higher taxes, fewer workers, rising welfare and slowing growth. As the Iran crisis intensifies and working people feel the squeeze, enraged voters will hammer Labour in next month's elections.

April may be awful for us. But May will be a nightmare for Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, when their failures will blow up in their faces. And serve them right.