Reeves says budget will involve ‘fair and necessary’ choices
This is how the Treasury summed up the budget in a news release issued last night. It refers to budget measures that have already officially been announced, as well as setting out what Rachel Reeves says are her priorities.
(The budget) will include action to cut NHS waiting lists, cut debt and borrowing, and cut the cost of living to secure a strong future for the country, built on fairness and fuelled by growth.
Action to keep prescription costs under £10, freeze rail fares for the first time in 30 years and increase the national minimum wage and national living wage by £1,500 and £900 respectively has already been confirmed to put more money in people’s pockets at this budget.
Investment for 250 neighbourhood health centres has also been confirmed as part of the chancellor’s commitment to slash NHS waiting lists further and end the postcode lottery of healthcare access.
And here is a quote from Reeves.
Today I will take the fair and necessary choices to deliver on our promise of change.
I will not return Britain back to austerity, nor will I lose control of public spending with reckless borrowing.
I will take action to help families with the cost of living … cut hospital waiting lists … cut the national debt.
And I will push ahead with the biggest drive for growth in a generation.
Investment in roads, rail and energy. Investment in housing, security and defence. Investment in education, skills and training.
So together, we can build a fairer, stronger, and more secure Britain.
Key events
The London stock market opened a little higher today, ahead of the budget, Graeme Wearden reports on his business live blog. But he says that “part of a wider global rally rather than enthusiasm about what will be announced at 12.30pm”.
There is another good profile of Rachel Reeves in the New Statesman cover story. It’s by Ailbhe Rea, and in it it she described Reeves throwing Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, out of her office as discussions got fraught at the time of the spending review in the summer.
In private, (Reeves) had heated, bitter disagreements with cabinet colleagues over squeezed budgets for their departments. “Get out of my office,” she told the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, as he tried to negotiate more funding for the capital, according to several people familiar with the incident. I’m told she cut short their scheduled meeting before the second half could begin. She told friends she was frustrated by Labour MPs criticising her without suggesting how they would pay for an alternative plan. Those who saw her at this time described a woman clearly struggling under the pressure, raging against all those making her job impossible, while showing no signs of regret over her own decisions and the constraints she had placed on herself.
Rea also says that, after Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, told the New Statesman ahead of the Labour conference that the government should not be in hock to the bond markets, she called him to complain.
Following Andy Burnham’s New Statesman interview in September, in which he said the UK shouldn’t be “in hock to the bond markets”, Reeves rang the Mayor of Greater Manchester to complain. She told him that he had cost her billions in borrowing costs and even caused concern at the Bank of England.
Earlier I mentioned the Daily Mail’s splash, attacking Rachel Reeves for putting up the mininum wage. (See 9.54am.) In his recent profile of the chancellor for the Times, Tom Baldwin revealed that Reeves’s mum is actually a Daily Mail reader. He explained:
The Daily Mail frequently attacks the chancellor but is still read by her mother, Sally, who apparently likes doing the puzzles and quizzes. “She’s very angry with it at the moment,” Reeves says. Why doesn’t she just cancel her subscription? “That’s what we’re hoping, but at the moment she just hides copies of it when we go round.”
Here is a live feed of the scene from outside 11 Downing Street, where Rachel Reeves will be appearing with for her budget red box photocall quite soon.
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak dismisses concerns about minimum wage rate rises as ‘scaremongering’
Paul Nowak, the TUC general secretary, has rejected the concerns raised by the Resolution Foundation (see 9.54am) about the rise in the minimum wage rates. Asked about the thinktank’s comments, Nowak told Times Radio:
I don’t accept those concerns …
First of all, that recommendation is based on the Low Pay Commission, which brings together employers, unions, independent experts, they’re tasked with making a recommendation on the minimum wage, which balances getting money into people’s pockets and the impact on unemployment.
Second thing is that every time the minimum wage goes up, we hear effectively scaremongering that this will cost jobs, and that hasn’t happened.
But the third thing is just on those national minimum wage rates for younger workers. Look across our big supermarkets, for example; they’ve all moved to phase out low rates of pay for young people. Why? Because young people have the same outgoings. Not everybody can rely on the bank of mum and dad, but they’re doing the same work, and you should pay somebody the right wage for the job they do.
Rachel Reeves has released a video message summing up her message about how the budget will involve “fair and necessary” choices. (See 8.53am.) She also stresses decisions that she is taking that help with the “cost of living”. That is a useful phrase because it refers to things like bills, where Reeves is expected to help with cuts to energy charges. People do not associate it with tax (where the income tax threshold freeze will in practice lead to people paying more), even though taxation is arguably also part of the cost of living.
And Keir Starmer has posted this message on social media.
Today’s Budget is about taking fair choices.
It will focus on your priorities: cutting the cost of living, cutting waiting lists and cutting the national debt.
This Labour government will deliver strong foundations for our economy and secure our country’s future.
What newspaper front pages are saying about the budget
And here are some of the other budget day front pages.
The Daily Mirror is the only one that is clearly positive for the Treasury.
Here are some of the more factual, or neutral, ones.
And here are some of the harsher ones.
Resolution Foundation warns minimum wage rises for younger workers could do ‘more harm than good’
Last night the Treasury announced increases to the the national living wage (NLW) and the national minimum wage (NMW), which is for younger workers. It was another of the budget announcements released early. Here are the figures from the Treasury.
From 1 April 2026, the NLW will rise by 4.1% to £12.71 per hour for eligible workers aged 21 and over. This will increase the gross annual earnings of a full-time worker on the NLW by £900, benefiting around 2.4m low-paid workers.
The NMW rate for 18–20-year-olds will also increase by 8.5% to £10.85 per hour, narrowing the gap with the NLW. This will mean an annual earnings increase of £1,500 for a full-time worker, and marks further progress towards the government’s goal of phasing out 18-20 wage bands and establishing a single adult rate.
The NMW for 16–17-year-olds and those on apprenticeships will increase by 6% to £8 per hour.
The Resolution Foundation thinktank welcomed the news. But, as Graeme Wearden reports on his business live blog, it also warned that increasing the rate for younger workers could be problematic. Nye Cominetti, principal economist at the thinktank, said:
The latest rise in the national living wage – while small compared to recent history – will nonetheless deliver a welcome wage boost to more than two million workers and their families.
Younger workers are set for an even bigger pay rises – but these steep increases risk causing more harm than good if they put firms off hiring and push up NEET (not in employment, education or training) rates.
The minimum wage has good to claim to be Britain’s biggest policy success in a generation. But at its higher level the government and low pay commission need to act with more flexibility when setting rates so they can respond to changing labour market conditions.
The Resolution Foundation is seen as broadly centre-left and mostly it advocates the sort of tax policies that the Daily Mail hates. But this morning it is quoted approvingly in the Mail’s splash story highlighting criticism of the minimum wage increases.
Farmers stage budget day protest in Whitehall – despite Met police telling them to stay away
Yesterday the Metropolitan police said they were not allowing a planned protest in Westminster by farmers to coincide with the budget. Farmers have been protesting regularly about the decision announced in Rachel Reeves’ budget last year to extend inheritance tax to farms.
The decision was criticised by the Conservative party, who said originally the Met had indicated the protest would be allowed. Last night Victoria Atkins, the shadow environment secretary, issued a statement saying:
It doesn’t smell right, particularly when we think of the regular and frequent protests that are allowed in SW1 which inconvenience motorists, residents and businesses without consideration. Is this to save the chancellor embarrassment ahead of her budget of broken promises?”
This morning some farmers turned up anyway. As PA Media reports:
A number of tractors were seen driving through Westminster early on Wednesday, with police stopping around 20 of them in the vicinity.
This included a farmer dressed as Father Christmas, his tractor carrying a large spruce tree and bearing a sign that read “Farmer Christmas – the naughty list: Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves, David Lammy, Diane Abbott, Angela Rayner & the BBC”.
The tractor was parked in Whitehall before Metropolitan Police officers intervened.
Another tractor remains parked outside Parliament in Abingdon Street bearing the slogan “Fools vote Labour”.
Here are some more pictures of ministers arriving at Downing Street this morning for the pre-budget cabinet.
Darren Jones says some pre-budget leaks have been ‘unacceptable, and not very helpful’
Darren Jones, the Cabinet Office minister and chief secretary to the prime minister, admitted this morning that some of the pre-budget leaks have infuriated No 10.
Jones was on the morning interview round for the government this morning and, asked about budget leaks, he told LBC:
There have been some leaks which are unacceptable and not very helpful.
We’ve had to read the riot act to people in government about that.
Jones seemed to be referring in particular to the Financial Times story that revealed that Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer had decided not to raise income tax in the budget, which would have breached a manifesto promise, even though they had clearly signalled the previous week that they would.
While some pre-budget stories that appear in the media are the product of official briefing, the FT story was not sanctioned and, even though it was true – rather, especially because it was true – it was not something No 10 wanted revealed at that point.
Reeves says budget will involve ‘fair and necessary’ choices
This is how the Treasury summed up the budget in a news release issued last night. It refers to budget measures that have already officially been announced, as well as setting out what Rachel Reeves says are her priorities.
(The budget) will include action to cut NHS waiting lists, cut debt and borrowing, and cut the cost of living to secure a strong future for the country, built on fairness and fuelled by growth.
Action to keep prescription costs under £10, freeze rail fares for the first time in 30 years and increase the national minimum wage and national living wage by £1,500 and £900 respectively has already been confirmed to put more money in people’s pockets at this budget.
Investment for 250 neighbourhood health centres has also been confirmed as part of the chancellor’s commitment to slash NHS waiting lists further and end the postcode lottery of healthcare access.
And here is a quote from Reeves.
Today I will take the fair and necessary choices to deliver on our promise of change.
I will not return Britain back to austerity, nor will I lose control of public spending with reckless borrowing.
I will take action to help families with the cost of living … cut hospital waiting lists … cut the national debt.
And I will push ahead with the biggest drive for growth in a generation.
Investment in roads, rail and energy. Investment in housing, security and defence. Investment in education, skills and training.
So together, we can build a fairer, stronger, and more secure Britain.
Budget to target cost of living crisis as Reeves battles to keep Labour MPs on side
Good morning. Budgets fall into two categories – reset ones, and continuity ones. Continuity budgets are more normal (or at least they were until British politics entered near-permanent crisis mode), and the reset ones tend to happen immediately after an election, or when there has been a change of chancellor. Reset budgets are more interesting (but interesting in the way journalists use the word, which is when what they really mean is ‘bad news’). This time last year Rachel Reeves thought the 2025 budget would be a continuity one, but instead it has turned into a colossal reset challenge – and, indeed, an event with the potential to make or break the Keir Starmer premiership.
Here is our overnight preview story.
The stakes are particularly high because anyone who has spent time talking to Labour MPs in recent weeks believes there is a chance that, by this time next year, Starmer could be out of office. There are good reasons why that probably won’t happen, but the idea that it might isn’t preposterous. That is one reason why there is so much at stake.
We have covered the reasons for this at length over the past few months and there is no need to rehearse them here. As for what to expect in the budget, Richard Partington has a good article here explaining the context.
And, in our First Edition newsletter, Phoebe Weston has a guide as to what to expect.
I will be focusing exclusively on the budget today (apart from covering PMQs) and Graeme Wearden, who writes the business live blog, will be joining me. As usual, we will be covering the speech minute by minute, bringing you reaction and analysis, and diving into the budget documents to find the bits Reeves did not mention in her speech.
Here is the timetable for the day.
9am: Keir Starmer chairs cabinet, where Rachel Reeves will brief colleagues on the budget.
Noon: Starmer faces Kemi Badenoch at PMQs.
12.30pm: Reeves delivers the budget. Kemi Badenoch responds on behalf of the Conservative party.
2.30pm: Richard Hughes, chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility, holds a press conference.
Afternoon: Starmer and Reeves are due to speak to staff at a hospital where they will take questions on the budget.
3pm: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, holds a post-budget press conference.
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