"Even more than usual, Wednesday's speech was full of significant fiscal changes, altered spending commitments and adjusted economic forecasts, most of them accidentally (and, for journalists, conveniently) released a short while in advance by the obviously misnamed Office for Budget Responsibility. Politically, however, almost nothing has changed at all. Reeves arrived in the Treasury last year offering what she, like Keir Starmer, had promised as the Conservative years ebbed: competence, stability and, above all, a focus on economic growth."
"What she did not acknowledge although she is painfully aware of it in private and it shaped big parts of her budget was that the same frustration and anger that carried Labour into government is now threatening to sweep Labour out of it again. Only an incorrigible Labour optimist and there are very few of these at the moment could say the 2025 budget has calmed those feelings, let alone laid them to rest."
Rachel Reeves's chancellorship was precarious before the 2025 budget and remains precarious after it. The budget introduced significant fiscal changes, altered spending commitments, and revised economic forecasts, many unintentionally leaked by the Office for Budget Responsibility. Promises of competence, stability, and a focus on economic growth have not been fulfilled. Reeves defended attempts to counter reduced growth forecasts but offered no guarantee of early improvement. Public frustration and anger persist, risks of electoral backlash threaten Labour, and widespread tax increases are likely to dominate public and media attention more than any avoided income tax rise.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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