The Liberal Democrats' 2024 general election manifesto includes proposals for tax increases and spending rises.

They aim to maintain the state's size relative to national income, which is significantly larger than it was before the pandemic.

Their plan involves topping up current spending plans with substantial tax increases, in addition to those already planned.

By targeting banks, energy companies, and tech giants, these tax hikes are designed to appear 'victimless', but they are not.

We are already collecting more from taxing companies than we have in decades.

Additionally, there are significant risks that their tax measures will not generate the £27 billion per year they claim.

Some of these tax measures are also economically unsound, such as taxing share buybacks.

Adding an extra £27 billion to day-to-day public spending represents a significant change to current plans.

However, most of this spending would be directed towards health, education, and defense, along with increases in the social security budget.

For example, they plan to scrap the two-child limit on means-tested benefits and make carer’s allowance more generous.

This would still leave unprotected departments – including prisons, courts, and local government – struggling to deliver billions more in cuts to their already fragile services.

Apart from a few substantial pledges, such as introducing free personal care in England, the Liberal Democrats are promising a long list of small additional tasks for the state.

Together, these would likely make it harder to address the major challenges in funding our core public services.

Paul has been the Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) since 2011 and is currently a visiting professor in the Department of Economics at University College London.

Max joined the IFS in 2020 as a research economist in the Healthcare Sector, focusing on the NHS labor force and adult social care in England.

Carl, a Deputy Director, is an editor of the IFS Green Budget, an expert on the UK pension system, and sits on the Social Security Advisory Committee.

Christine's research examines inequalities in children's education and health, particularly in early education and childcare.

Emmerson et al.

(2024) provide a reaction to the Liberal Democrat manifesto in their commentary for the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

They emphasize the importance of objective analysis of economic policy and encourage joining their network to help improve public debate and government policy through high-quality, independent research.