It’s Budget day in Westminster. The question being asked by Labour MPs: can Rachel Reeves pull it off? This lunchtime, the Chancellor will stand at the despatch box and pitch Labour’s first Budget for 14 years as necessary tough choices to ‘fix the foundations’ while also ensuring ‘working people don’t face higher taxes in their payslips’ (see Mr Steerpike for who Labour’s working people definition misses out). Reeves will use a report by the Office for Budget Responsibility to argue that the Tories left such a bad economic inheritance she had to take action. The Tories will try to argue in turn that Labour planned a tax raid (to the tune of £35 billion) all along and can be accused of breaching manifesto pledges.
Yes, Starmer has a large majority but he’s already had party management problems
A multitude of measures have been trailed or leaked in recent weeks. The latest include plans to raise the UK’s national minimum wage is to rise by 6.7
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