Spring Statement 2025 newest: Rachel Reeves to chop advantages as Labour slashes public spending
Rachel Reeves will deliver the annual Spring Statement to MPs today – and is expected to announce deep spending cuts to public services.
The Chancellor will deliver her speech to the Commons around 12.30pm – shortly after PMQs – to update on the state of the nation’s finances. Ahead of her speech, she pointed to money poured into capital spending and the NHS, saying the Government’s actions were a “far cry” from those of their Conservative predecessors.
At the same time, she said Labour was looking to cut back the Civil Service, which she said had swelled during the Covid-19 pandemic, by slashing its “back office functions, the administrative and bureaucracy functions” by the end of this parliament.
It comes after a backlash, including in the party’s own ranks, to cuts to welfare spending and a decision to slash the aid budget to fund a boost to the UK’s defence spending.
Ms Reeves said she would not pre-empt the Office for Budget Responsibility’s forecast she will be responding to. “But the world has changed,” the Chancellor told Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips. “We can all see that before our eyes and governments are not inactive in that – we’ll respond to the change and continue to meet our fiscal rules.”
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No major tax changes expected in Spring Statement
Treasury officials are keen to highlight the Spring Statement is not a Budget – or an “emergency Budget” as the Tories’ have suggested – and no major tax changes will be announced on Wednesday.
At the Budget last year the Chancellor Ms Reeves unveiled a £40billion hike in taxes – mainly hitting firms with an increased national insurance levy. She described the package as one needed to plug the £22billion gap in public finances left by the Tories and to fix the NHS – but “not the sort of Budget we would want to repeat”.
Last week Keir Starmer raised eyebrows as he failed to repeat the Chancellor’s vow not to extend the freeze on income tax thresholds ahead of the Spring Statement.
Thresholds were initially frozen by the previous Conservative government until April 2028. But it is understood that changes to the tax regime are not expected next week.
