Kirstie Allsopp unleashes fury as she compares Rachel Reeves to Blackadder's Baldrick

TV property star Kirstie Allsopp has compared Rachel Reeves' handling of the economy to Blackadder character Baldrick, in a new takedown of the Chancellor's tax raid plans. The Chancellor is reportedly eyeing up imposing national insurance on landlords' rental income, as she aims to fill in a £40 billion fiscal black hole before her Autumn Budget.

She hopes the plan could raise £2 billion, but the reports sparked condemnation from Ms Allsopp. The Location, Location, Location star branded the rumours "economically destabilising. It's literally like having the economy run by Baldrick." Blackadder's sidekick was infamous for his "cunning plans", which often turned out to be hapless and backfired.

Ms Allsopp continued: "She keeps on coming up with the cunning plans and she needs to go and sit in a corner and think about how to save money and improve the economy, not constantly be taking money from people because this will impact tenants."

The plans have also been blasted by the National Residential Landlords Association, who warned the tax raid will hit renters.

Chief executive Ben Beadle said: "Further punitive tax hikes on the rental sector will lead only to rents going up, hitting the very households the Government wants to protect. It would come on top of last year's increase to stamp duty on homes purchased to rent and proposals expecting landlords to pay up to £15,000 on energy efficiency improvements to properties."

The idea has been floated by the Resolution Foundation think tank, which was previously led by Torsten Bell who this week it was revealed is helping Ms Reeves put together her Budget.

Landlords raked in £27 billion of net property income in 2022-23, and a standard 8% rate of national insurance would have generated £2.18 billion for the government.

The levy then falls to 2% above £50,000, meaning smaller landlords with one or two homes would be hit disproportionately harder than those with larger property empires.

A Treasury spokesman said: "As set out in the Plan for Change, the best way to strengthen public finances is by growing the economy, which is our focus. Changes to tax and spend policy are not the only ways of doing this - as seen with our planning reforms, which are expected to grow the economy by £6.8bn and cut borrowing by £3.4bn.

"We are committed to keeping taxes for working people as low as possible, which is why at last autumn's Budget, we protected working people's payslips and kept our promise not to raise the basic, higher or additional rates of income tax, employee National Insurance, or VAT."

Ms Allsopp also weighed in earlier this month in response to reports Ms Reeves is considering a raid on family homes with a new £15,000 tax when selling up.

She accused the Treasury of "flying kites" to determine public reactions, which will have a "destabilising effect" on the property market.

She told Times Radio: "Don't fly kites like this. It is really destabilising for the property market. And when I say the property market, I mean people's homes and their mortgages and homes affect their relationships, their jobs, their education, their wellbeing in almost every way you can think of. It's not the place to fly kites.

"This government seems to want to punish people for making the sacrifices they've made to buy their own homes. The average move used to be five in a lifetime, and it's now four. And as you know, people don't downsize because it's become too expensive."