Budget tax hikes should be coupled with major reform, Osborne says

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Rachel Reeves should combine “unavoidable” tax hikes in her Budget with tax reform such as merging income and national insurance levies and scrapping fuel duty relief, two top figures from the coalition government years have said.

Tory former chancellor George Osborne argued it would be “messy” to make small adjustments and it would be “easier to go for one of the big three taxes: income tax, national insurance or VAT” while overhauling the system.

He revealed that tax reform he had considered with Liberal Democrat Treasury ministers when the two parties were in a coal