<\/p>\n
Britain’s Prime Minister Andy Burnham, right, and Chancellor of the Exchequer John Healey meet ahead of the UK budget at 11 Downing Street in London, Monday, Oct. 26, 2026.<\/p>\n
Alberto Pezzali\/Alberto Pezzali\/Pool AP via AP<\/p>\n
Britain’s Prime Minister Andy Burnham, right, and Chancellor of the Exchequer John Healey meet ahead of the UK budget at 11 Downing Street in London, Monday, Oct. 26, 2026.<\/p>\n
Alberto Pezzali\/Alberto Pezzali\/Pool AP via AP<\/p>\n
Britain’s Prime Minister Andy Burnham, right, and Chancellor of the Exchequer John Healey meet ahead of the UK budget at 11 Downing Street in London, Monday, Oct. 26, 2026.<\/p>\n
Alberto Pezzali\/Alberto Pezzali\/Pool AP via AP<\/p>\n
LONDON (AP) \u2014 British Treasury chief John Healey faces a fine balancing act when he delivers his first budget statement Wednesday, with the economic backdrop made more difficult as a result of the turmoil caused by the Iran war.<\/p>\n
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Healey, who was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in July when Andy Burnham became prime minister, takes center stage when he stands up in the House of Commons in what is arguably Parliament’s key set-piece of the calendar.<\/p>\n
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Even though the British economy has been more resilient than anticipated this year and has grown strongly, the problem is that the money just isn\u2019t there for Healey to enact many of the Labour government’s ambitions on restoring the health of the country’s public services.<\/p>\n
The U.K.\u2019s economy has been hit \u2014 like others \u2014 by the inflation generated by the Iran war and the ensuing bottlenecks in the Strait of Hormuz, which have squeezed global oil and gas supplies.<\/p>\n
Inflation in the U.K. has risen to a near one-year high of 3.5% as the Iran war continues to ratchet up fuel prices, and is expected to go higher in coming months. As a result, the Bank of England is expected to raise interest rates soon, which will further raise the costs to the government of servicing the debt.<\/p>\n
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Budget expected to be relatively low-key<\/p>\n
As a result, Healey\u2019s budget is expected to be relatively low-key, especially at a time when bond markets are fretting over debt levels around the world. France has been in the spotlight recently following a wave of protests that have exposed the parlous state of its finances.<\/p>\n
Matthew Amis, an investment director at Aberdeen Investments, said a \u201cdull budget\u201d could well be rewarded in the financial markets by lower government borrowing costs, which could in the longer run free up extra resources to plow into schools, hospitals and the military, for example.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe one note of caution is that international investors are very quick to punish countries with a weak fiscal story. Just ask France,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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Healey has said focus will be on cost of living<\/p>\n
In his few comments ahead of the budget, Healey has said he will aim to give businesses and families \u201csome breathing space\u201d from the upward march in the cost of living. These could include measures to cushion the blow from higher energy prices.<\/p>\n
Burnham has also made pledges about reducing, and even eradicating, homelessness, improving care for the elderly and meeting NATO targets on defense spending.<\/p>\n
One source of revenue is expected to come from the banks, which have benefited from higher interest rates. A higher surcharge on their profits is anticipated. Another revenue source may come from higher taxes on the gambling sector.<\/p>\n
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Debt remains the main constraint<\/p>\n
The main problem facing Healey is the same as that which confronted his predecessor Rachel Reeves, who was Chancellor after Labour returned to power in a landslide election victory \u2014 the country’s debt mountain.<\/p>\n
Even though the trajectory of the public finances was recently given a nod of approval from the International Monetary Fund, the U.K.\u2019s debt has passed 3 trillion pounds ($4 trillion) for the first time ever, requiring 8% of government spending to service it.<\/p>\n
Anything said on defense will be noteworthy<\/p>\n
There will be particular interest on what Healey says on defense, as he quit as defense secretary earlier this year in protest at the lack of money being provided, a move that heaped pressure on Burnham\u2019s predecessor, Keir Starmer.<\/p>\n
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Paying for those measures would require him to find the money from somewhere else \u2014 tax rises or spending cuts \u2014 if he is to fend off nervous bond market investors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Britain’s Prime Minister Andy Burnham, right, and Chancellor of the Exchequer John Healey meet ahead of the UK…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[123784,161761,31231,126046,90306,161763,23681,59373,84874,59371,84875,86159,61262,161762,82,84,83,65865],"class_list":["post-479105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-andy-burnham","tag-britain-budget-healey-burnham-inflation-debt","tag-iran","tag-john-healey","tag-keir-starmer","tag-matthew-amis","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","tag-product-30597-ap-business-news-f-wire","tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","tag-product-31995-ap-online-general-financial-business-news","tag-product-32502-ap-online-europe-news","tag-product-46986-ap-online-top-stories","tag-rachel-reeves","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-united-kingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}