Britain now has a higher tax burden than Spain after the share of GDP taken in tax rocketed.
The Tories have long claimed to be the party of low taxes but that claim is unlikely to stand up for much longer.
With a month to go until the budget a graph leaked by Guido Fawkes shows the tax burden is now higher than it was under Gordon Brown in 2009.
If the Office for Budget Responsibility figures are correct it also shows tax levels have hit a level not seen for two generations.
The share of GDP taken in tax is now a full 10 points higher than it is in Ireland and 8 points higher than the traditionally low tax USA.
This comes as austerity continues to bite hard in Britain, despite most of the money lent by the banks during the financial crisis being recovered.
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