Rachel Reeves defends spending review as she admits latest growth figures ‘disappointing’ – UK politics live | Politics
Rachel Reeves gives interviews after delivering spending review on Wednesday
Good morning. Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, got a good reception from MPs when she addressed them yesterday after delivering her spending review. But she cannot avoid questions about whether taxes might have to rise in the autumn, and growth figures for April out this morning undermine the claim that the economy is turning round.
Reeves is giving interviews this morning. Commenting on the growth figures, she said they were “clearly disappointing”.
Our number one mission is delivering growth to put more money in people’s pockets through our Plan for Change, and while these numbers are clearly disappointing, I’m determined to deliver on that mission.
In yesterday’s spending review we set out how we’ll deliver jobs and growth – whether that’s improving city region transport, a record investment in affordable homes or funding Sizewell C nuclear power station. We’re investing in Britain’s renewal to make working people better off.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is doing a morning interview round. She is on the Today programme at 8.10am.
9am: The Resolution Foundation publishes its spending review analaysis.
10.30am: The Institute for Fiscal Studies publishes its spending review analysis.
10.50am: Kemi Badenoch gives a speech at the Peel Hunt FTSE250 conference in London.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Noon: John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, takes questions from MSPs.
1pm: Wes Streeting, the health secretary, gives a speech at the NHS Confederation conference in Manchester.
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Key events
Q: Will there be fewer civil servants as a result of your plans?
Yes, says Reeves. She says one example is the government’s decision to scrap NHS England.
Q: You guarantee that the extra police promised by Labour in its manifesto will be funded?
Reeves say she gave that commitment in her speech yesterday.
Q: Are you assuming councils will increase council tax by the maximum 5% each year. That would be a £7.5bn tax rise.
Reeves claims her plans are not based on the assumption that every council will raise council tax by the maximum allowed every year.
Abel asks about the winter fuel payments U-turn cost, and gets the same reply ITV’s Good Morning Britain did. (See 8.40am.)
It’s Times Radio next for Rachel Reeves. She is being interviewed by Stig Abell and Kate McCann.
Abel starts off with the GDP figures, and Reeves repeats points she has made earlier, saying monthly figures are volatile, and the three-month figure much better.
Q: What does stabilising the economy mean?
Reeves says the Bank of England has been able to cut interest rates four times. But she recognises conditions are still tough for people, she says.
Q: Where will asylum seekers be living when you get them out of hotels?
Reeves says: “We need to deport more of them.”
She claims this is happening.
Q: But you are still budgeting for costs of £2.5bn. What are those for?
Reeves says hotel accommodation is the most expensive form of accommodation. That is why the government is getting rid of them.
Q: It will be a record year for cross-Channel crossings?
That is why we are putting more money into Border Force.
Abell repeats the question about where people will go. Do you know?
Reeves says that is a matter for the Home Office.
Q: Is it possible you may have to raise taxes more?
Reeves says Labour committed in the manifesto not to raise the key taxes working people pay, income tax, national insurance, and VAT. She has kept to that and will stick to that, she says.
And that’s the end of the ITV Good Morning Britain interview.
Reeves says being chancellor is not about 'trying to win popularity contest'
Q: Do you accept that you are in a weaker position as chancellor than when you started?
Reeves says she does not view the job as “trying to win a popularity contest”.
Reeves brushes off questions about how winter fuel payments U-turn will be funded, saying fresh OBR forecast coming first
Q: What taxes will have to go up?
Reeves says her spending plans are funded.
Q: But the winter fuel payments U-turns was not funded. So currently your sums do not add up.
Reeves says this will be paid out in the winter. There are another OBR forecast to come before then, she says.
Q: You claim all your spending plans are funded. But every economist says taxes are going to have to go up. Are you saying that won’t be necessary.
Reeves repeats her point about no chancellor being willing to set budgets for years ahead.
Rachel Reeves is now on ITV’s Good Morning Britain. Susannah Reid and Richard Madeley are interviewing her.
Q: You must be disappointed about the growth figures?
Reeves repeats the point about monthly growth figures being volatile. But she says the three-month figure shows growth at 0.7%.
Reeves has got three more interviews this morning, according to Politico’s London Playbook. She will be on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Times Radio and GB News. Before Today, she had already done three others.
Q: Government borrowing costs are higher than they were just after Liz Truss’s budget.
Reeves says the global situation has changed.
But she accepts the government is spending too much on servicing government debt.
And that’s the end of that interview.
Reeves says government won't U-turn on proposed cuts to sickness and disability benefits
Q: Will you change your mind on disability cuts?
No, says Reeves.
But she says people are are unable to work have nothing to fear.
There are 1,000 people a day going on to disability benefits, she says.
The UK is the only developed country where the number of people in the labour market is lower than before Covid, she says. She says the government must help people back to work.
Robinson explains the changes to Pip (the personal independence payments). Will you stop people getting it if they cannot wash properly.
Reeves says the eligibility criteria are being reviewed.
Q: So you might change your mind?
Reeves says the policy has not changed. What has been announced already is a change to the eligibility criteria (which is what she was referring to a moment ago, she implies).
Reeves says she does not accept police claims they will have to cut frontline officer numbers due to spending review
Q: Health leaders say the spending review plans won’t be enough to allow the government to hit its NHS performance targets.
Reeves defends the settlement.
But she says reform in the NHS is needed too.
Q: The NHS budget is bigger than the entire budget of Portugal. Which is why are are squeezing in other areas. The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, says the increase for the police will still lead to cuts in frontline policing in the capital.
Reeves says the police have got 2.3% above inflation.
She says she does not accept that there will need to be cuts.
Q: The National Police Chiefs Council also says there will have to be cuts.,
Reeves repeats the point about the police getting an above-inflation settlement.
Q: If there are cuts, will you do a U-turn?
Reeves says, if the police are getting more than inflation, there will be no need for cuts.
Reeves says monthly growth figures 'notoriously volatile', and suggests Trump tariffs to blame for bad April figures
Robinson asks about the growth figures out today.
Reeves says monthly growth figures are “notoriously volatile”. But April was a challening month.
Q: It was challenging because you put taxes up?
Reeves says the number of jobs in the UK has gone up.
April was when President Trump announced his tariffs, she says.
She says business surveys are “all ticking up” and “confidence is returning”.
Reeves ducks question about whether it is fair to say tax rises likely in autumn budget
Q: That is what you said before the election – that nothing in your plans required tax rises. But you put taxes up by £40bn in your first budget.
Reeves says no chancellor would write a budget for years ahead.
But she repeats the point about all the spending review decisions being funded.
Q: The former head of fiscal policy at the Treasury, Ruth Curtice, now runs the Resolution Foundation. She says tax rises are likely in the autumn. Other thinktanks say the same too. Is it fair to say you may have to increase taxes?
Reeves says the OBR said policy changes would lead to more growth. The trade deals since then will help too. So lots is being done to “turbocharge the economy”.
She says she set out plans yesterday to promote growth.
All this is about “trying to put more money into working people’s pockets”, she says.
Reeves interviewed on Today programme
Nick Robinson is interviewing Rachel Reeves on the Today programme. She is in Derby.
Q: Do we have to prepare for tax rises in the autumn budget?
Reeves says she made tax decisions in the budget last year. And she set a spending envelope.
Yesterday was about allocating the money in that envelope. Everything was funded.
Reeves declines to rule out tax rises in autumn budget
Rachel Reeves has already been on Sky News. She told them the measures in the spending review did not require extra taxes, but she refused to rule out putting up taxes in the autumn budget.
Rachel Reeves gives interviews after delivering spending review on Wednesday
Good morning. Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, got a good reception from MPs when she addressed them yesterday after delivering her spending review. But she cannot avoid questions about whether taxes might have to rise in the autumn, and growth figures for April out this morning undermine the claim that the economy is turning round.
Reeves is giving interviews this morning. Commenting on the growth figures, she said they were “clearly disappointing”.
Our number one mission is delivering growth to put more money in people’s pockets through our Plan for Change, and while these numbers are clearly disappointing, I’m determined to deliver on that mission.
In yesterday’s spending review we set out how we’ll deliver jobs and growth – whether that’s improving city region transport, a record investment in affordable homes or funding Sizewell C nuclear power station. We’re investing in Britain’s renewal to make working people better off.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is doing a morning interview round. She is on the Today programme at 8.10am.
9am: The Resolution Foundation publishes its spending review analaysis.
10.30am: The Institute for Fiscal Studies publishes its spending review analysis.
10.50am: Kemi Badenoch gives a speech at the Peel Hunt FTSE250 conference in London.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Noon: John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, takes questions from MSPs.
1pm: Wes Streeting, the health secretary, gives a speech at the NHS Confederation conference in Manchester.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm at the moment), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
