Reeves suggests budget will involve spending cuts as well as tax rises
Q: Taxes are going up in the budget, aren’t they?
Reeves says she will announce her decision at the budget.
But two factors have changed the context.
The OBR has revised its estimate for productivity growth.
And the world economy has been affected by conflicts and disruptions, she says (referring to tariffs.)
Q: This means taxes are going up, doesn’t it?
Reeves says she has had to look at taxes and spending. It has to mean “both of those things”, she says.
Key events
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Reeves says children should not be penalised for being in big family
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Reeves suggests she has decided breaking manifesto tax pledge better than alternative option
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Reeves suggests budget will involve spending cuts as well as tax rises
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Rachel Reeves interviewed on Radio 5 Live
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DUP education minister Paul Givan survives no confidence vote under cross-community rules, after unionists back him
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Farage says he’s still in favour of PR – but he suggests he would prioritise allowing voters to trigger referendums on policy
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Farage suggests Reform UK would scrap Office for Budget Responsibility
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BBC apologises for ‘error of judgment’ in TV edit that implied Trump made ‘direct call’ for violent attack on US Capitol
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Farage says BBC should have to compete against other broadcasters via subscription model
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Farage says VAT threshold for businesses ‘far too low’
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Farage says BBC’s Panorama edit was ‘election interference’, and Trump reacted ‘not in quotable form’
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Farage says Trump complained to him about BBC in conversation they had on Friday
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Farage thanks Lord Bamford for JCB’s £200,000 donation to Reform UK
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Farage claims UK living under ‘global corporatism’, not capitalism, and that entrepreneurs aren’t respected
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Farage says small business owners who thought Brexit would cut regulation have been betrayed because opposite happened
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Farage says Reform UK would champion small businesses, claiming they don’t ‘get look in’ under Labour or Tories
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DUP education minister Paul Givan faces no confidence vote at Stormont over trip to Israel
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Tories urge Met police commissioner to reject report he commissioned saying culture of force leads to racial harm
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Around 300,000 households experienced acute homlessness in 2024, up 21% over 2 years, Crisis charity says
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Labour could suffer Lib Dem-style election drubbing for breaking manifesto promise if they raise taxes, Reeves warned
Here is the full quote from Rachel Reeves when she was asked about breaking a manifesto promise. (See 2.49pm.) She replied:
It would, of course, be possible to stick with the manifesto commitments. But that would require things like deep cuts in capital spending, and the reason why our productivity and our growth has been so poor in these last few years is because governments have always taken the easy option to cut investment in rail and road projects, in energy projects and digital infrastructure. And as a result, we’ve never managed to get our productivity back to where it was before the financial crisis.
This is similar to what she said at her press conference last week.
Q: How do you relax when you are not working?
Reeves says she spends time with her children. They went to fireworks on Saturday.
And she goes running, she says.
Q: Do people recognise you?
Reeves says she keeps her head down.
And she does not listen to the Today progamme. This morning she was listening to Raye, she says.
And that is the end of the interview.
Reeves says children should not be penalised for being in big family
Reeves refers to the Crisis figures on homelessness today. (See 9.48am.)
She says homelessness has an economic cost, as well as a social cost.
She says it is not right for a child to be penalised because they are in a big family.
So the government will act on child poverty, she says.
Q: Will you scrap the two-child benefit in full, as Gordon Brown wants?
Reeves says she saw Brown yesterday, and he has emailed her today.
She says Brown and Tony Blair are big heroes for her because of what they did on child poverty.
No one should be in any doubt about my commitment to ending the scourge of child poverty.
Q: Lucy Powell, the deputy Labour leader, said that you should stick to the manifesto.
Reeves says “Lucy has been very clear since that interview that she stands alongside me, and the decisions that I’ll need to make in that, budget”.
Reeves suggests she has decided breaking manifesto tax pledge better than alternative option
Q: We did you promise in the manifest not to raise income tax, national insurance or VAT?
Reeves says the manifesto was based on what they were going to inherit.
But the economic inheritance has turned out to be worse.
Q: What is the point of a manifesto if it does not last?
Reeves says she will set out her decisions in the budget.
It would have been possible to stick to the manifesto, she said. But that would have meant deep cuts.
Reeves suggests budget will involve spending cuts as well as tax rises
Q: Taxes are going up in the budget, aren’t they?
Reeves says she will announce her decision at the budget.
But two factors have changed the context.
The OBR has revised its estimate for productivity growth.
And the world economy has been affected by conflicts and disruptions, she says (referring to tariffs.)
Q: This means taxes are going up, doesn’t it?
Reeves says she has had to look at taxes and spending. It has to mean “both of those things”, she says.
Q: Only 10% of people have confidence in you as chancellor? Why is that?
Reeves says she is dealing with challenging economic situation.
Q: I interviewed you last year, and you said this was a dream job. Is it now a nightmare for you?
No, says Reeves.
She says as chancellor you do not get to choose the circumstances in which you serve.
In difficult circumstances, she says it is even more important to have a chancellor with the right priorities.
She says most of her career as an MP she was in opposition. She prefers being in government.
Q: Has being in government been harder than you expected?
Reeves says there have been challenges, like the need for higher defence spending, and Trump’s tariffs policy.
Q: Have any of your decisions made things worse?
Reeves says every decision has an impact. She did put up taxes, she says. But if she had not done that, there would have been a need to borrow more.
She says, as a result of her decisions, they have brought down waiting lists and interest rates.
Doing nothing was not an option, she says.
Rachel Reeves interviewed on Radio 5 Live
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is being interviewed by Matt Chorley on Radio 5 Live.
Chorley starts with the BBC story.
Q: Do you have confidence in the BBC?
Yes, says Reeves. She says it is respected the world over.
Q: What do you think about President Trump’s legal threat?
That is not a matter for me, Reeves says.
DUP education minister Paul Givan survives no confidence vote under cross-community rules, after unionists back him
The bid to force Northern Ireland’s DUP education minister Paul Givan from office through a vote of no confidence following controversy over his recent visit to Israel (see 10.58am) has failed, PA Media reports.
The no-confidence motion was supported by 47 out of 80 MLAs who voted, but fell because it did not gather support from a majority of both nationalist and unionist representatives, as required by the rules of the Northern Ireland assembly.
During a heated debate, the motion brought by People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll was supported by Sinn Féin, the Alliance party and the SDLP.
It was opposed by the DUP, the Ulster Unionist party and TUV MLA Timothy Gaston.
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