Morning Report – April 6th

Welcome to “worse off Wednesday” – or Black Wednesday as Ed Balls is calling it – as the 2011/12 tax year begins. The national insurance rise kicks in today, which alongside January’s VAT hike will put extra pressure on household budgets. In addition the Mirror is reporting that working families face losing more than £2,500 a year from today “in sneaky changes to tax credits that will hit thousands of parents.” Meanwhile the Daily Mail warns “Millions of cash-strapped families will be hit today by a toxic mix of tax rises and benefit cuts which will cost them up to £600 a year.”

As Tim Montgomerie notes over at Conservative Home, the government are being hit hard by the right-wing press today. That’s something Cameron should be especially wary of as it’s likely to make some of his MPs very uncomfortable.

In other news, today is the start of parliamentary recess, but for most MPs that just means it’s time to get those campaigning shoes back on and work on local elections in their constituencies.

There’s no rest for the government today either, as Cameron, CLegg and under-fire Andrew Lansley begin to try and “sell” the health secretary’s NHS reforms. The Times (£) report that Lansley has received the backing of the PM and DPM. In reality it sounds like a football manager getting the dreaded “vote of confidence” from his board of directors…