Wealth & Money Quote by John Redwood

Redwood’s line is engineered to flip Labour’s brand story inside out. The party that sells itself as the defender of ordinary workers is recast as a luxury good: “very rich” people, he suggests, can absorb the blow of higher taxes, while everyone else can’t. “Afford Labour” is a neat bit of market language that smuggles in a whole worldview - politics as a consumer choice, government as a cost, the voter as a squeezed household balancing a ledger.

The “66 tax rises” claim does double duty. It’s not just a statistic; it’s a rhythm. The big, round number is meant to feel relentless, like a drumbeat of small hits adding up to a thump. Whether each “rise” is a major policy shift or a technical adjustment is beside the rhetorical point. Redwood is stacking increments to imply a pattern of instinct: Labour’s reflex is always to reach for your wallet.

Context matters because it’s a Conservative talking point aimed at the “middle” - aspirational homeowners, small business owners, people who don’t consider themselves rich but fear being treated like they are. The subtext is moral as much as economic: Labour doesn’t merely tax; it punishes success and mismanages money, forcing the prudent to subsidize the profligate. It’s a line designed for soundbites, but also for identity - to make “Labour government” feel like a status threat, not a policy debate.