The Budget is out and, as expected, its measures include the removal of the two-child benefit cap, along with tax rises of £26 billion. Today, though, the headlines focus on whether Chancellor Rachel Reeves deliberately misled the public about the state of the public finances to soften the reception of her Budget. On the BBC, Laura Kuenssberg asked Reeves why she had given the impression she would have ‘no choice’ to put taxes up, when in fact the Office for Budget Responsibility had said there was a £4 billion surplus. Reeves said her headroom had been downgraded from the £9.9 billion she had in the spring and claimed that £4 billion would be ‘the lowest surplus that any chancellor ever delivered against their fiscal rules’. Reeves suggested that the tax decisions in her budget were taken to ‘build up that economic resilience’ and get the headroom to £21.7 billion. Kuenssberg noted that, on 10 November, Reeves had told the BBC that not raising taxes would require ‘deep cuts in spending on longterm projects’ and asked if she had been lying. Reeves reiterated that her headroom had been reduced and that she had wanted to increase it.
Rachel Reeves: ‘We haven’t broken the manifesto’
Laura Kuenssberg also asked the Chancellor if she denied giving the impression that she wouldn’t put ‘ordinary people’s taxes up’ before the election. Rachel Reeves said she had stuck to Labour’s manifesto commitment not to ‘increase the rates of income tax, national insurance, or VAT, and also to keep corporation tax at its current levels’. The Chancellor added that she had been clear in a speech she gave on 6 November that she would be asking ‘everyone to make a contribution’ to protect public services. Kuenssberg pointed out that more than one million Britons will now pay a higher rate of income tax and suggested Labour had broken ‘the spirit’ of its election promise. Reeves said she had been ‘honest and upfront’ about tax rises. She insisted that she had not taken the alternative route of making ‘deep cuts to public spending’ because ‘people voted for change’, such as cutting NHS waiting lists, which she said Labour had reduced by almost 250,000 in a year.
Kemi Badenoch: ‘She can dish it but she can’t take it’
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch attacked Rachel Reeves after she delivered her Budget on Wednesday, calling her ‘spineless’ and mocking her for ‘whining about mansplaining’. On Sky News this morning, Trevor Phillips asked Badenoch if her approach had been ‘a bit personal’. Badenoch said that ‘tone-policing’ was ‘by the by’, and called for the Chancellor to resign as she was doing a ‘terrible job’ and had ‘told lies’. Phillips pointed out that Reeves has denied lying and criticised Badenoch for not putting forward an economic rebuttal to the Budget, despite it being leaked early by the OBR. Badenoch argued that she did make economic points in her speech, particularly about Reeves ‘borrowing so much, leaving debts to our children, all to pay benefits’. Badenoch added that Reeves had ‘taken a swipe’ at her in her first Budget speech last year, adding: ‘She can dish it but she can’t take it.’ This, she claimed, was the typical story of Labour politicians who ‘think they’re better than everybody else’.
Kemi Badenoch: ‘We would put that cap back’
This morning Rachel Reeves said she was proud of the decision to remove the two-child benefit cap, saying it will lift 450,000 children out of poverty over the course of this parliament. Speaking to Kemi Badenoch, Sky News’ Trevor Phillips asked if she thought it was ‘morally right’ for the state to treat a family’s third child differently to their second. The Tory leader suggested that, if the government taxed people less heavily, families would have more money for that child and said the government was not ‘living within its means’. She said that a two-child benefit cap was the ‘responsible’ place to draw the line with Universal Credit and argued that it was ‘immoral to saddle the next generation… with debt’ to make people more comfortable today. Phillips asked if the Conservatives would put the cap back. Badenoch said they would and claimed all the other parties ‘want more benefits’.
Daisy Cooper: ‘She’s got very serious questions to answer’
On GB News, Camilla Tominey asked the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, Daisy Cooper, for her response to the allegations that Rachel Reeves had misled the public. Cooper said the Chancellor had ‘very serious questions to answer’ and that she hoped Reeves would come to parliament to answer those herself ‘rather than sending another minister’. Cooper claimed the entire Budget process was not ‘fit for purpose’, and called for more transparency by introducing an official ‘draft Budget’. Tominey noted that many aspects of the Budget had been leaked in advance. Cooper argued that leaks are not the same as transparency, and said MPs should have the chance to see a draft Budget and ‘debate [it] properly’. Tominey pointed out that Cooper has previously called for the resignation of many Conservative politicians and asked why she’s not doing so with Reeves or Keir Starmer. Cooper said that Reeves ‘hasn’t answered questions yet’ unlike previous MPs she’d criticised. She also denied that the Liberal Democrats have a ‘cosy’ relationship with Labour, saying her party had criticised the Budget for having ‘nothing in it to promote growth [and] nothing in it to alleviate the cost of living crisis’.
Comments