Keir Starmer may be against the Tories’ tax hike, but Labour needs ideas of its own | Larry Elliott

Public attitudes to spending have shifted since austerity, yet the opposition seems to be championing low taxes

For decades, many on the left have hankered for the social democratic political settlement of other European countries. Britain, it has been said, should ditch Thatcherism once and for all, and embrace higher taxes as the means of improving public services.

Now it has happened. As a result of the new health and social care levy, taxation will rise to its highest sustained level on record. This is the work not of a party of the left but of one of the right. Rishi Sunak may say he is a fiscal hawk who favours a small state and low taxes, but he is a tax-and-spend chancellor. Sajid Javid may have a picture of the Iron Lady on his office wall, but he is a tax-and-spend health secretary.

Larry Elliott is the Guardian's economics editor