Rachel Reeves called an unprecedented pre‑Budget press conference today, a move that would normally signal some meaty policy announcements. Sadly, it was not to be. Instead she spoke, faltering and stumbling, for more than half an hour without saying anything with a bit of protein in it.
She began by blaming everyone else for last year’s horror Budget and the one she’s lining up for us on November 26. Basically, whatever she does is everyone else’s fault.
All our woes are down to US tariffs, volatile supply chains, increased defence spending, “high levels of debt left by the previous government” and random “challenges of a global nature”.
No mention of the damage done by her own £25 billion jobs tax last year. Or her abject failure to trim the soaring welfare bill, which has so spooked bond markets.
Instead, she blamed the “austerity hammer‑blow” delivered by the Tories after 2010, the “productivity puzzle”, even the local politics of Reform UK in Kent. Once she wound up, the questions started, and that’s when the word salad was served.
Reeves refused to answer the question every journalist was waiting for: will she hike taxes in the Budget? Specifically, will she raise income tax?
She spoke, she talked, her lips moved, syllables formed sentences, the odd coherent phrase appeared, but nothing of any substance.
Apparently, this morning was only about “setting the context” by which she means: we’re in a mess because everyone else ruined things, and we should be grateful we finally have a chancellor (Rachel Reeves) willing to face up to reality.
Then she scuttled back to blaming others, notably former Tory PM Liz Truss and her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng for their September 2022 mini‑Budget.
She admitted this was three years ago, but insisted it was still the main reason borrowing costs are higher today. I’ve checked the numbers: after the 2022 mini‑Budget, 10‑year gilt yields peaked at 3.94%. Today they stand at 4.415%, and rose with every word Reeves spoke.
Basically, they’re down to Reeves. So more nonsense from a chancellor who claimed she’s “being honest”, yet refused to address a question about the £900 rental licence she recently dodged. If she were being really, truly, deeply honest, she would have said something like this:
“I’ve gathered you here today because later this month I will be breaking a Labour manifesto promise and hiking income tax in the Budget.
“Yes, I know I promised I wouldn’t hike taxes again, don’t keep going on about it, but frankly I’ve got to do it because I bungled the economy from day one in the job.
“I inherited a black hole of £22 billion, which I’ve now increased to £50 billion solely through my own efforts.
“There’s absolutely no way Labour back‑benchers will allow meaningful spending cuts, so taxpayers will have to foot the bill. Bad luck.
“I will raise taxes by anything between £30 billion and £50 billion – I don’t actually know yet, but hope to have a rough idea by November 26.
“You’re going to hate it, you’re going to hate me, you’re going to hate the Labour government, but frankly I have no choice, and anyway it’s all your fault for being daft enough to swallow the rubbish we told you in the election. Goodbye.”
That would have been clear, honest and a lot better than the soggy salad we were served. But, of course, the last thing Reeves will ever treat us to is the truth.