UK Politics

After months of speculation and briefings, Rachel Reeves has unveiled £26bn worth of tax rises in her much-anticipated Budget. But in an unprecedented leak just minutes before the chancellor got to her feet, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) published its response to the statement, leaking her entire plan before she even had a chance to unveil it.The tax hikes, which will leave her with £22bn in fiscal headroom, come on top of the £40bn of tax rises unveiled last year and are set to be delivered by freezing personal tax thresholds and a host of smaller measures. It brings the tax take to an all-time high of 38 per cent of GDP in 2030-31. Here are the key takeaways from the chancellor’s long-awaited – but much-trailed – budget. Economic growth The OBR has predicted that economic growth will be weaker than expected from 2026 to the end of the current Labour government, despite having increased its forecast for economic growth this year from 1 per cent to 1.5 per cent. In 2026, growth has been downgraded from 1.9 per cent to 1.4 per cent; in 2027 from 1.8 per cent to 1.5 per cent; in 2028 from 1.7 per cent to 1.5 per cent and in 2029 from 1.8 per cent to 1.5 per cent. The news will come as a blow to the Labour government, which has put economic growth at the heart of its mission in office. A freeze on income tax thresholds More than 1.7 million people face paying more income tax as she froze thresholds until 2030-31, meaning people will be dragged into paying for the first time or shifted into higher bands as earnings increase.The OBR said the freeze would result in 780,000 more people paying the basic rate, 920,000 more the higher rate and 4,000 more additional-rate income tax payers in 2029/30. The body also estimated this will raise around £7.6bn by 2029/30.Ms Reeves acknowledged the freeze in tax thresholds would hit “working people” – the group Labour had promised to protect – but she was “asking everyone to make a contribution”.Pension tax raid Pension contributions made under salary sacrifice schemes of more than £2,000 per year will now be hit with national insurance contributions from 2029, for both employers and employees, the chancellor announced. Rachel Reeves is unveiling her Budget in the Commons More

Rachel Reeves has announced an end to the two-child benefit cap at today’s Budget, following months of intense pressure from backbenchers, campaign groups and political opponents.The move will increase the benefits for 560,000 families by an average of £5,310, the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) fiscal outlook has calculated.Set to come into effect from April 2026, the government estimates that the change will reduce the number of children living in poverty by 450,000 by 2029/30. The government estimates that the change will reduce the number of children living in poverty by 450,000 by 2029/30 More

Watch live from the Commons after Rachel Reeves delivered her Budget speech on Wednesday (26 November).The Chancellor unveiled a raft of tax hikes as she tries to plug an estimated £30billion black hole in public finances.Before the 2024 election, Labour promised not to increase income tax, National Insurance or VAT for “working people”.In her speech, Reeves announced the first rail fares freeze for 30 years, slash green levies on energy bills and scrapped of the controversial two-child benefit cap.She also reduced the annual tax-free allowance in cash Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) to £12,000, unveiled a new mansion tax on properties over £2million, and put a cap on salary sacrifice pension contributions.On Tuesday (25 November), health secretary Wes Streeting announced a “milkshake tax” as the drinks will now be hit by the sugar levy, whilst communities secretary Steve Reed unveiled a “tourist tax” which will allow mayors to levy a charge on overnight stays.The Chancellor also confirmed that low-paid workers are to get a pay rise of 4.1% from April next year as minimum wage rates go up.Ahead of her speech, Ms Reeves released a pre-recorded message on social media where she said she will make “fair and the necessary choices” to “deliver on [Labour’s] promise of change”. More

When Rachel Reeves got to her feet in the chamber, there was an enormous cheer from her colleagues. But that was about the high point for the chancellor – with faces behind her on the Labour benches soon turning to misery as she began unveiling her long-awaited Budget. It took almost an hour for another big cheer, coming after she announced the end of the two-child benefit cap.The problem may well have been that she had nothing new to tell them – because what little of this Budget had not been pre-briefed to the media had been released in error by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) less than an hour before Ms Reeves’ big moment. The staggering blunder sparked outrage in parliament from MPs who will not be allowed copies of the OBR report, or the Budget red book, until Ms Reeves has sat down.Follow our live Budget updates HEREThe chancellor’s Budget was released early by the Office for Budget Responsibility More

Rachel Reeves made a jab at “hypnotherapist” Zack Polanski whilst announcing her Budget on Wednesday (26 November).Speaking in the Commons, the Chancellor said the Greens leader “believes he can achieve remarkable things using the power of his mind”.“Unfortunately the only things getting bigger under his approach would be the deficit and the rate of inflation,” she said as the chamber jeered.In September, Mr Polanski was forced to apologise for claiming to have been able to help women increase the size of their breasts using his mind. More

Rachel Reeves has effectively cut the cash ISA limit in Wednesday’s Budget, with the cap set to drop from £20,000 to £12,000 – though there is one notable exception for over-65s.The move, seen as a bid to encourage more people towards investing rather than only saving in cash, has prompted a mixed reaction from consumers and businesses.Ask Me Anything: Join our personal finance expert LIVE on Thursday 27 NovemberMany savers will not feel the impact of a cut on a day to day (or year to year, more specifically) limit, bearing in mind the difficulty many people have in saving upwards of £1,000 per month. But they could still be hit when they come into a lump sum – through inheritance, for example, or a property sale.Either way, some people clearly want to move money before limits are cut. One cash ISA provider, Plum, told The Independent they’d seen a 49 per cent spike in the amount deposited into accounts between 15 October and 15 November, while another, Trading 212, confirmed that two in five (40 per cent) customers deposited more than £12,000 into their cash ISA each year.Follow our live Budget updates HERESo what are the next possible moves for your cash, what are the rules around the different options and – the question the chancellor wants people to answer “yes” to – should you be starting to invest?ISA limits and rulesFirst things first, the full ISA limit of £20,000 is not being reduced. It’s just the cash ISA limit, which is coming down.Chancellor Rachel Reeves has cut the cash ISA limit in Wednesday’s Budget More

The Deputy Speaker has condemned the government for extensively speaking to the media in the weeks leading up to the Budget.Addressing MPs before Rachel Reeves began her speech on Wednesday (26 November), Nusrat Ghani criticised the “disappointing” extensive media briefings in the past few weeks, which she labelled as “unprecedented”.Going on to reference the OBR leaks which occurred on hour before the Chancellor gave her speech, she said: “This all falls short of the standards that the House expects.”Reminding the government that announcements should be made in the chamber before they are given to the media, she said: “Like many, I expected better.” More

Vulnerable migrants held in UK detention centres are routinely being handcuffed, with some detained for hours, a damning report has found.Examples of unnecessary force include a frail 70-year-old man being handcuffed during a hospital visit, despite having no history of being disruptive, and another man subjected to rigid bar cuffs and a waist-restraint belt, as well as thigh and ankle restraints, for over four-and-a-half hours. Force and restraints should only be used as a last resort. Still, inspectors at the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB), which oversees prisons and detention centres, found this was largely being disregarded by immigration staff. The IMB report, published on Wednesday, found that force had been disproportionately used against people recorded as vulnerable, and healthcare staff were not notified quickly enough when it did happen. In one case, it took staff more than four hours to tell medics that a man had been restrained despite him banging his head repeatedly on a wooden bed frame. It said cases, such as those highlighted, were impacting people’s willingness to attend hospital appointments due to the stigma of being handcuffed.People held at Brook House Immigration Removal Centre respond to demonstrators from migrants’ rights groups protesting against plans to send migrants to Rwanda in June 2022 More