Spring Statement 1) Badenoch brands Reeves ‘deluded’, as economists warn the Chancellor will need more tax rises
“Rachel Reeves was branded delusional last night after insisting her economic plans are working as official growth forecasts were halved. On a humiliating day for the Chancellor, she was forced to deliver a £14 billion package of emergency spending cuts to avoid breaking fiscal rules she wrote herself only five months ago. And economists warned that the public finances are so precarious the Chancellor is likely to have to return for another round of tax increases in the autumn. When pressed on the potential for future tax rises last night, Ms Reeves would not rule them out, telling reporters: ‘I’m not going to write four years’ worth of Budgets.’ The Chancellor insisted her plan ‘is working’, but said Britain faced new challenges from ‘a world that is changing before our eyes’. But Kemi Badenoch said the Chancellor was ‘deluded’ – and should accept the blame for Britain’s plunging growth.” – Daily Mail
- Reeves refuses to rule out tax raid at autumn Budget – Daily Telegraph
- Rachel Reeves warned of tax rises ahead despite £14bn plan to fix public finances – FT
- Reeves accused of balancing books on back of UK’s poorest – Guardian
- Mel Stride points out one glaring issue Rachel Reeves failed to address – Daily Express
- 50-50 chance of tax hikes this year as Reeves warned on economy – The i
- Trump’s tariffs threaten to wipe out UK’s economic growth – The Times
- Britain’s wealth squashed under Reeves… and it could get worse: Brits face an extra Year of flatlining wealth, a record tax burden with fears of more to come – and the only thing propping up GDP is mass immigration – Daily Mail
- Ten taxes Rachel Reeves will be eyeing up in her Autumn Budget – Daily Telegraph
Comment
The prize is an economy that finally delivers – Rachel Reeves The Times
Rachel Reeves’ emergency budget was a humiliation and it confirmed what we knew already… Labour isn’t working – Mel Stride Daily Mail
Reeves’ economic trickery is not fooling anyone – Camilla Tominey Daily Telegraph
Should Brits brace for tax rises in the Autumn Budget? – Claer Barrett FT
How Rachel Reeves led to tax rises and much worse after Spring Statement – Andrew Neil Daily Mail
Reeves’ bet hasn’t paid off, she’s left the economy in tatters and is stuck in a miserable doom loop – Harry Cole The Sun
Expect more pain to come as Reeves plays it safe – Julian Jessop CapX
Rachel Reeves’s non-Budget is very bad news – Isabel Hardman Spectator
>Yesterday
Opposition and think-tank reactions to the Chancellor’s Spring Statement
Spring Statement sketch: Reeves started to do our headroom in
Spring Statement 2) Griffiths points to OBR omission he brands an ‘unexploded bomb’
“While Rachel Reeves chose to boast about higher growth and rising defence spending, she failed to address the elephant in the room. Angela Rayner’s overhaul of workers’ rights has not yet been assessed by Britain’s tax and spending watchdog – and it threatens to render the Chancellor’s economic forecasts redundant within months. In a stark warning, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) signalled that the new rules will have “material” and probably negative impacts on the economy… While Labour says it wants to Make Work Pay, the proposals will probably result in lower growth, higher prices and a hit to living standards. Andrew Griffith, the shadow business secretary, branded the package an “unexploded bomb” lurking in the economy. He said: “As if halving UK growth forecasts was not bad enough, it turns out that the OBR has not taken into account the job-destroying Employment Rights Bill (ERB), which has now reached 300 pages of suffocating red tape.” – Daily Telegraph
- Rachel Reeves’s Spring Statement fact checked – and what the OBR really said – The i
- ‘Very small’ headroom risks getting erased again, OBR warns – City AM
Comment
The Office for Budget Responsibility must be stripped of its powers or all our wallets will suffer – Alex Brummer Daily Mail
>Today
No, the Office for Budget Responsibility does not have too much – or indeed any – power
Spring Statement 3) Reeves reveals Labour’s housebuilding target will not be met
“Rachel Reeves said the spending watchdog (OBR) had concluded the Government’s planning reforms would “help build over 1.3 million homes” in the next five years. This is less than the Government’s promise to construct 1.5million new homes. The OBR’s report, published …alongside Ms Reeves’ spring statement, also sets out that Angela Rayner’s plans that will allow councils to concrete over the green belt will only contribute 170,000 of the forecast 1.3 million new homes by the end of the parliament. In a humiliating blow to Labour’s pledge to make housing more affordable, the OBR says it expects average house prices to rise from £265,000 to £295,000 in 2029.” – Daily Express
- Reeves’s plan for affordable homes, mapped – The i
- Rachel Reeves confirms plan to build 1.5 million new homes in Spring Statement presser – The Sun
National insurance hike could cancel out Labour’s 6500 new teachers pledge
“Headteachers’ warnings about Rachel Reeves’s national insurance rises suggest they could more than wipe out any gain schools receive from Labour’s plan to recruit 6,500 new teachers. Doubts were already being raised about whether the extra staff for schools – a key promise in Labour’s general election manifesto – would materialise. The latest warnings from heads over how the Chancellor’s decision to raise national insurance contributions (NIC) for employers could actually lead to schools reducing teacher numbers, is another blow for the flagship policy.” – The i
Jenrick accuses Sentencing Council of watering down punishments for illegal migrants
“New guidelines for judges which propose watering down punishments for illegal immigration offences risk ‘blowing a hole’ in Britain’s border controls, the Conservatives have warned. The Sentencing Council – which is already embroiled in a political storm over its ‘two-tier justice’ measures – plans to slash the maximum jail terms for a range of immigration crimes. Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick said the proposals will lead to hundreds of illegal immigrants a year being handed far weaker punishments than those approved by Parliament. The guidelines could ultimately allow offenders to remain in Britain indefinitely because they will no longer meet a legal threshold to qualify for ‘automatic deportation’.The Labour Government will be powerless to act because earlier this month it voted down Tory measures which would have granted ministers a veto over the Council’s work.” – Daily Mail
- The asylum seeker towns where locals are ‘too terrified to walk the streets’: Residents in Britain’s migrant hotspots say communities are being ‘taken advantage of’ and left fearing for their safety – Daily Mail
Universities’ warned of huge fines if they don’t protect freedom of speech
“Universities could face fines of millions of pounds for free speech breaches, the higher education regulator has warned. The University of Sussex has been fined £585,000 for failing to uphold free speech in the wake of the departure of Professor Kathleen Stock, a record amount. The university was given a significant discount because it was the first contravention of its kind, the Office for Students (OfS) said. Instead it could have been asked to pay more than £3 million in penalties. Other universities are likely to incur much higher fines if they fall foul of the regulator in a similar way. Stock told The Times that many more universities still had policies with the clauses that the OfS had ruled against. However, the University of Sussex’s vice-chancellor said the investigation had been flawed, politically motivated and “Kafkaesque.” – The Times
- University of Sussex fined £585,000 for failing to uphold freedom of speech – Guardian
Starmer rejects as ‘unnecessary’ Tory calls for a ban on mobile phones in schools
“Calls for a ban on smartphones in schools have been dismissed as unnecessary and a waste of time by Sir Keir Starmer. The prime minister shot down calls from Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, and Sir Martyn Oliver, Ofsted’s chief inspector, for a national ban to stop the devices contributing to classroom disruption. Drawing on his own experience of having two teenage children, Starmer said a full-scale ban was “completely unnecessary. Almost every school bans phones in school. They do it already,” he told the Commons during prime minister’s questions. But Badenoch said he was wrong, quoting statistics that showed only one in ten schools are smartphone-free.” – The Times
‘Fab grab’. Former Tory MP follows others by entering the realm of reality TV
“He’s one of the more colourful MPs to grace Westminster, and often found himself at the centre of many a political controversy. And now former Conservative politician Sir Michael Fabricant has signed up to appear on Celebrity Big Brother which begins next month on ITV. He is understood to have signed a lucrative six-figure deal to take part after political stars were banned from the broadcaster’s other reality show, I’m A Celeb. The Mail can reveal that network bosses are ‘excited’ at him agreeing to take part in the reality series, with one source saying: ‘He doesn’t hold back, he’s going to be compulsive viewing, we can’t wait. We wanted a top politician but one with enormous personality which would entertain the viewers. He recently lost his seat so was available, already the execs are excited that he will be a star of the series.” – Daily Mail
News in Brief
- Rachel Reeves can’t blame anyone else for stagnant growth – Ross Clark Spectator
- The unbearable lightness of the Spring Statement – Tim Knox CapX
- Britian’s defence delusions – Aris Roussinos Unherd
- Universities must face the music – Alexandra Wilson The Critic
