1991 United Kingdom budget

1991 (1991) United Kingdom budget

Presented	19 March 1991
Parliament	50th
Party	Conservative Party
Chancellor	Norman Lamont
‹ 1990 1992›

The 1991 United Kingdom budget (officially titled A budget for business)^[1] was delivered by Norman Lamont, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to the House of Commons on 19 March 1991.^[2] It was Lamont's inaugural budget following his appointment as chancellor by Prime Minister John Major, and the first to be presented following the resignation of Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister the previous autumn.

With the prospect of the next general election needing to be held in little over a year's time, the governing Conservative Party was keen to distance itself from the unpopular legacy left behind by the Community Charge (more commonly known as the poll tax). One of the ways the new government had sought to do this was to offer a £140 discount on all poll tax bills under its Community Charge Reduction Scheme. But the chancellor increased VAT in order to pay for this, a move that some Conservative MPs feared would damage their reputation as a low tax party. Lamont also Levied tax on the private use of company mobile phones, which were treated as an employee benefit. Responding to the budget, John Smith, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, claimed it was irrelevant to the country's needs.