Kate Andrews is economics editor of The Spectator
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Rachel Reeves has announced that taxes will rise by £40 billion in Labour’s first Budget for 14 years. The headlines include: an increase in employers’ National Insurance contributions from April to 15 per cent, raising £25 billion; that the freeze on income tax and National Insurance thresholds will not be extended past 2028; that the
Rachel Reeves didn’t want to surprise anyone with this Budget. She didn’t want to shock the markets, nor did she want any accusation that she had played fast and loose with the public finances. So by the time the Chancellor stood up in the Commons today, the bulk of her big decisions were already public
We won’t have to speculate about the details of the Labour’s first Budget much longer. But one tradition as old as time has been confirmed by the Treasury: the National Health Service is getting more cash. ‘Our NHS is the lifeblood of Britain,’ the Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said ahead of unveiling her full Budget
Are the details of the alleged £22 billion fiscal black hole about to be revealed? In addition to providing assessments and forecasts for the UK economy alongside the Chancellor’s Budget on Wednesday, the Office for Budget Responsibility is also set to publish its ‘review’ into Rachel Reeves’ claim that the Tories covered up a multi-billion
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It’s Budget week (finally)! How this week goes will set the tone for Labour’s first year in office. It’s fair to say that expectations are relatively low – with the Prime Minister himself warning of ‘painful decisions’ ahead. We know a lot of what will likely be included and Treasury sources are keen to play
Does Labour regret its decision to redefine the meaning of a ‘working person’? The original understanding of the term seemed to be working just fine, until ministers decided to make it the metric for who would and would not be subject to tax rises. Now the party finds itself in the strangest of situations: having
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Who exactly are ‘working people’? The Labour party’s use of this phrase during the election raised questions over who they will really be levying taxes upon. With less than a week to go until the Budget, Labour in government is now again struggling to give a clear definition of what they mean. James Heale talks
Rachel Reeves confirmed on her trip to Washington DC that she will be changing the government’s self-imposed fiscal rules, allowing the Chancellor to borrow up to £50 billion more for infrastructure investment in Britain. The change – which will take into account the government’s assets – will further loosen what are already quite loose rules
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This week: Decline and Fall – how our greatest universities are betraying students.Our greatest universities are betraying students, writes David Butterfield, who has just resigned from teaching Classics at Cambridge after 21 years. What went wrong? First, class lists of exam results became private, under alleged grounds of ‘data protection’, which snuffed out much of
‘Tradition holds that I’m supposed to tell a few self-deprecating jokes this evening,’ said Donald Trump in his speech at the Al Smith Dinner in New York on Friday night. ‘So here it goes.’ He paused. ‘Nope. I’ve got nothing… There’s nothing to say. I guess I just don’t see the point at taking shots
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Two weeks to go until the American election and politics is ever more divisive. Freddy Gray is joined by The Spectator’s Kate Andrews and lecturer at Queen Mary’s University Dr Richard Johnson about the latino vote, class politics, abortion and both guests make predictions for the 2024 election. Join Freddy Gray a special live recording of Americano
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Labour’s first Budget in 14 years will be delivered at the end of the month. The Prime Minister and Chancellor have already been warning that the public isn’t going to like what’s in it. But how will the Budget affect people? Will Labour break its manifesto commitment not to tax working people? And is it really true
When Rachel Reeves’s ambition was to find £22 billion, it was already clear that she would need to find more revenue than what was expected to come from the relatively small take hikes the party announced it would pull pre-election. When that number was upgraded to £40 billion, there was no denying that a big
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A scoop from Bloomberg has revealed that a number of Cabinet ministers have written formally to the Prime Minister to complain about the budgetary decisions they are being asked to make in their respective departments. Rachel Reeves seems to have an impossible task ahead of the Budget – but was this a trap of Labour’s
Inflation slowed to 1.7 per cent in the twelve months to September, taking the inflation rate to its lowest levels since spring 2021. While markets and forecasters had expected the inflation rate to drop below the Bank of England’s 2 per cent target at some point this year (market consensus for September was 1.9 per
Is Ozempic the miracle fix for Britain’s labour market woes? This morning Health Secretary Wes Streeting has announced a £280 million investment into the UK from US pharmaceutical giant Lilly, which will include the first ‘real-world trial’ to give weight-loss jabs to people out of work. The news coincides with the publication of the latest
Despite getting off to a rocky start – including nearly losing £1 billion worth of investment – Labour’s much-anticipated Investment Summit seems to be delivering exactly what ministers had hoped for. The good news, including a combined investment of £6.3 billion from four US technology firms to expand data-centre infrastructure in Britain – is rolling
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This morning is the government’s big investment summit. They pledged to have the summit within their first 100 days in an attempt to hit the ground running and show the UK as a sensible place to do business. The timing – two weeks before the budget – is interesting, and so is the U-turn from
Happy Friday: the economy is growing. After two consecutive months of no growth, GDP picked up in August, rising by 0.2 per cent. Production and construction output finally turned around, growing 0.5 per cent and 0.4 per cent respectively, after contracting in July by 0.7 per cent and 0.4 per cent. Services output grew by
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The Institute for Fiscal Studies has published its yearly Green Budget, weeks ahead of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s first fiscal event. It’s grim reading, for both the government and the public. For Labour to make good on its promise to avoid ‘austerity’, taxes are going to need to go up significantly: by £25 billion, the IFS’s reports,
