{"id":319167,"date":"2025-11-30T19:50:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T19:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/319167\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T19:50:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T19:50:10","slug":"rachel-reeves-denies-lying-to-public-in-run-up-to-budget-rachel-reeves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/319167\/","title":{"rendered":"Rachel Reeves denies lying to public in run-up to budget | Rachel Reeves"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rachel Reeves has denied lying to the public in the buildup to last week\u2019s budget<\/a>, insisting that she needed to raise taxes to a record level to ensure economic stability.<\/p>\n

The chancellor said on Sunday she had announced \u00a326bn-worth of tax rises on Wednesday in part to build a buffer against her fiscal rules and reduce the risk of further tax increases in the future, and in part to protect public spending.<\/p>\n

Her messaging contrasted, however, with what she said before the budget, when she said tax rises would be necessary because of an expected decision by economic forecasters to reduce their growth expectations.<\/p>\n

In the end, the Office for Budget<\/a> Responsibility (OBR) did downgrade its expectations for economic productivity, but said unexpectedly strong wage growth and tax receipts would more than make up for that.<\/p>\n

The OBR\u2019s comments have kickstarted a political firestorm, which has led opposition politicians to demand Reeves\u2019s resignation<\/a>. Keir Starmer is expected to defend the chancellor in a speech on Monday, during which he will also announce new measures to boost economic growth.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Reeves told the BBC\u2019s Laura Kuenssberg: \u201cI wanted to build up the fiscal, economic resilience. The headroom that I had in the spring statement of \u00a39.9bn, I\u2019ve taken that up to \u00a321.7bn.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cI know that some people are suggesting that there was a small surplus that the OBR published on Friday. But if I was on this programme today and I was saying \u00a34bn surplus is fine, there was no economic repair job to be done, I think you would rightly be saying that\u2019s not good enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would have been the lowest surplus that any chancellor ever delivered against the fiscal rules. I was clear I wanted to build up that resilience, and that is why I took those decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that she was confident in her position as chancellor despite calls from the Conservatives and Reform UK for her to resign.<\/p>\n

Reeves appears on Laura Kuenssberg\u2019s BBC programme opposite the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch. Photograph: Jeff Overs\/BBC\/PA<\/p>\n

\u201cI was an MP in opposition for 14 and a half years. I have been underestimated all the way through my life. As a young girl from an ordinary background, people make assumptions about me. I\u2019ve defied them before, and I will defy my critics again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starmer and Reeves have spent the past few days defending the decisions they made in the budget, which included freezing income tax thresholds to help pay for more headroom and about \u00a38bn more welfare spending than previously planned.<\/p>\n

Much of the criticism directed at Reeves has centred on comments she and her aides made in the buildup to the budget as she contemplated breaking a manifesto commitment and raising income tax rates.<\/p>\n

In a speech earlier this month<\/a>, she said: \u201cIt is already clear that the productivity performance that we inherited from the last government is weaker than previously thought.<\/p>\n

\u201cA less productive economy is one that produces less output per hour worked. That has consequences for working people \u2013 for their jobs and for their wages, and it has consequences for the public finances too, in lower tax receipts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, said on Sunday she thought the chancellor should resign.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe chancellor called an emergency press conference, telling everyone about how terrible the state of the finances were, and now we have seen that the OBR had told her the complete opposite,\u201d Badenoch told the BBC.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of that, I believe she should resign.\u201d<\/p>\n

Badenoch defended the tone of some of her criticisms, including her personal mockery of the chancellor in the House of Commons.<\/p>\n

She accused Reeves in her official budget response of \u201cwallowing in self-pity and whining about misogyny and mansplaining\u201d \u2013 comments that Reeves said on Sunday made her \u201cuncomfortable\u201d because of their personal nature.<\/p>\n

Badenoch insisted, however, she was right to criticise the chancellor in the tone she did, saying: \u201cMy job is to hold the government to account, not to provide emotional support for the chancellor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Downing Street defended Reeves over the weekend. A No 10 source told reporters<\/a>: \u201cThe idea that there was any misleading going on about the need to raise significant revenue as a result of the OBR figures, including the productivity downgrade they contained, is categorically untrue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starmer will repeat those sentiments on Monday morning in a speech from Downing Street in which he is expected<\/a> to praise the budget for reducing the cost of living and inflation.<\/p>\n

He will also announce a fresh push to cut business regulation in a renewed effort to boost economic growth, including reforming the rules on building nuclear power plants.<\/p>\n

The prime minister is also expected to announce that the business secretary, Peter Kyle, has been asked to look again at the processes surrounding large infrastructure projects in general.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rachel Reeves has denied lying to the public in the buildup to last week\u2019s budget, insisting that she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164],"class_list":{"0":"post-319167","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}