8 months ago
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Rachel Reeves (Image: Getty)
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Rachel Reeves has refused to rule out more tax rises at next year’s Budget despite announcing a fresh £26billion raid.
The Chancellor vowed after last year's budget not to return again with more tax rises on workers and businesses.
But when asked if she could now make the same guarantee on Wednesday, she said: “Look, last year I had to fill the £22billion black hole in the public finances left by the Conservatives. What we didn’t know then, as well as that black hole in the public finances, actually productivity growth was weaker than the Office for Budget Responsibility then forecast.
“They’ve been really clear in their documentation today, available before the Budget, that productivity forecasts based on the past is now expected to be 0.3 percentage points lower per year.
“Although I believe that we can beat those forecasts – we’ve beat them this year, the Conservatives’ legacy is not our country’s destiny – we also all know that if you ignore the forecasts you pay a huge price in the cost of government borrowing.”
THIS IS A LIVE BLOG. ORE UPDATES TO FOLLOW.
1 min ago07:29 Steph Spyro
Early Budget release 'let me down', Reeves admits
Rachel Reeves said the Office for Budget Responsibility accidentally releasing the Budget on Wednesday before she presented it in the Commons "should never have happened" and "let me down".
6 mins ago07:24 Steph Spyro
Chancellor: 'You're not going to write my obituary today!'
Rachel Reeves told a radio presenter challenging her over rising welfare spending that “lots of people have tried to write me off over the last 16 months, and you’re not going to write my obituary today”.
“I’m not going to apologise for lifting the two-child limit,” Mr Reeves told Times Radio.
When it was put to the Chancellor that she had raised tax on working people in order to put it into welfare, she said: “I don’t accept that.
“The OBR say that their revisions to productivity, reflecting the Conservatives’ legacy, is going to mean £16 billion less tax revenue, and as a result, we have to fill that gap. But if we can grow the economy, as I’m determined to do, we can get that money back.”
She insisted she was “determined that we’re going to beat” the watchdog’s growth forecasts.
13 mins ago07:17 Steph Spyro
Reeves: Taxes kept at 'absolute minimum on ordinary working people'
Taxes have been kept at “an absolute minimum on ordinary working people,” Rachel Reeves has said.
The Chancellor told GB News: “I did have to increase taxes yesterday, but I’ve kept them to an absolute minimum on ordinary working people, freezing those thresholds for an additional three years from 2028.”
She also hit back at Nigel Farage’s claim that the Budget was an “assault on aspiration”.
“This Government are backing aspiration,” Ms Reeves said, adding that the Reform UK leader should focus on explaining “what he’s going to do about ensuring that we don’t have more traitors in his party” after Reform UK’s former leader in Wales, Nathan Gill, was jailed for bribery.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves (Image: Getty)
14 mins ago07:16 Steph Spyro
Most 'pain' from Reeves's budget will only be felt in 2018, think tank warns
The decade continues to look “really tough” for living standards, as most of the “pain” from Rachel Reeves’ Budget will not be felt until 2028, the chief executive of the Resolution Foundation think tank said.
Ruth Curtice told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “On kind of the fiscal repair job, she increased her head room by a lot, but she delayed the pain. So borrowing is actually up every year until 29-30. So interestingly, delaying the pain until just before an election.”
Ms Curtice continued: “Those threshold freezes kick in in 2028. Some of the other measures also not coming in – for example the mansion tax and the salary sacrifice – until 2028, so that’s when most of the pain from this Budget will be felt.”
She also said: “This Parliament is set to be second only to the last parliament for (living) standards… This decade continues to look really, really tough.”
Unemployment is higher than forecast in March, “so for some people who are struggling in the jobs market a particularly tough outlook”.
On welfare, the think tank boss said that while spending on pensioner and health and disability benefits are rising more than expected, “we didn’t hear much yesterday of how they might take action in the future”.
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