Autumn Budget 2024: Live updates as Chancellor Rachel Reeves unveils Labour’s plan for £35 billion tax raid

Prime Minister’s Questions is set to start in the next few minutes, which will then be followed by the Budget.

Watch our live stream here as Keir Starmer takes to the dispatch before the Chancellor delivers her historic speech.

Tory MP Mark Francois has asked the last question of PMQs.

He asked why the PM is ‘throwing veterans to the wolves’ by proposing to repeal the Northern Ireland legacy bill.

Starmer gives a short reply: ‘I’m not.’

Now a question from Richard Tice, former leader of Reform.

He asks the PM if he agrees authorities should put out ‘more information sooner’ about incidents of terrorism.

Starmer replies by saying in all cases the police and prosecutors should be ‘able to do their difficult job’.

He then says that MPs have a decision to make, ‘they can either support the police or undemine them.’

Leader of the Green Party Carla Denya has asked Sir Keir if would describe what is happening in Gaza as a ‘genocide’.

He replies: ‘I have never described what is going on in Gaza as a genocide.

‘I do agree that all sides should comply with international law.’

Rishi Sunak said he was ‘proud to be the first British and Asian Prime Minister’.

But he said he was ‘even prouder’ that it was not a ‘big deal’.

Sir Keir added ‘we were all proud’ to see him standing outside Downing Street

He then joked it may not be the last time they meet at the dispatch box, given the speed at which the Tories ‘go through leaders’.

Rishi Sunak has confirmed he will be spending more time in Yorkshire, which he calls the ‘greatest place on earth’ following his departure as Conservative Leader.

He went on to say how the county is home to some of England’s greatest cricketers before calling for continued Government support to teach cricket in schools across the UK.

It may be a historical day for Labour, but it is also a milestone for Rishi Sunak, who in just a few minutes will make his final appearance at PMQs as Conservative Leader.

The Tories are set to crown a new leader this Saturday, meaning next week it will be either Kemi Badenoch or Robert Jenrick facing off agianst Keir Starmer at the dispatch box.

Sunak was made leader of the Conservative Party two years ago and was the first British Asian to hold the office and the position of Leader of Opposition after losing the election in July.

by David Wilcock, Deputy Political Editor for MailOnline

Rachel Reeves will hand Britain’s Armed Forces a £3billion spending boost in Today’s Budget – but set no timetable for meeting Labour’s pledge to up long-term spending.

Amid a drastic manpower crisis and questions over the UK’s ability to fight a war the Chancellor is expected to pour cash into defence to assuage fears it would bear the brunt of cost-cutting measures.

Some £400 million is expected to be used to hand troops a six per cent pay rise, backdated to April. It comes as the forces hemorrhage experienced personnel and struggle to attract new recruits.

Read more here:

Former Home Secretary James Cleverly has made a sly dig at Labour ahead of the party’s first ever Budget in 14 years.

The Conservative MP re-posted a tweet from former Prime Minister RIshi Sunak from July warning that Labour would raise people’s taxes. Here’s what he wrote:

It’s less than an hour to go until Rachel Reeves delivers her historic budget as the first ever female Chancellor to do so.

But before then, Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Conservative leader Rishi Sunak will face off at 12pm for Prime Minister’s questions.

Reeves will then take to the dispatch box at 12:30pm.

Stay with us as we continue to deliver the latest updates throughout to day.

Rachel Reeves has been pictured holding the famous Budget red box aloft outside No 11 before travelling to Parliament.

The box contains the speech the Chancellor is about to make, although on one occasion Norman Lamont used it to hold a half bottle of whisky for him to drink at the despatch box.

Eagle eyed viewers will have noticed it bears the initials ‘ER’ (‘Elizabeth Regina’) for the late Queen Elizabeth.

While some may have thought the boxes would be updated with King Charles’ initials, it appears the Chancellor has kept with tradition by using the same box as her predecessor Jeremy Hunt in March.

Rachel Reeves has appeared outside No11 Downing Street as she prepares to give Labour’s first budget in 14 years.

She posed with the infamous red budget box outside her office before getting into a car to make her way to Parliament.

Yesterday, MailOnline spoke to Labour voters ahead of the Budget and it’s fair to say they weren’t impressed…

One woman said ‘I can’t believe how bad they are’, while another said Labour wasn’t helping the most vulnerable.

See our video below:

Pictured: Increases in contributions to Isas and pensions

Speculation about what the Budget might hold for savers has triggered a big rush to top up or max out Isas and pensions early this year.

The number of clients using up their entire £20,000 Isa allowance already is up 40 per cent on last year, according to Hargreaves Lansdown.

The investing platform, which offers both stocks and shares and cash Isas, also reports a 20 per cent rise in customers making at least some contribution to their Isa, when we are still just over midway through the tax year.

The number of well-off savers maxing out their £60,000 annual pension contribution has also shot up by around two thirds, while 12 per cent more than last year have chosen to top up their pots early, says the firm.

Dozens of you have commented ahead of today’s Budget with many predicting employers are going to be the big losers when Rachel Reeves delivers her Commons statement.

Let’s see what some of you are saying as we build-up to the big event.

looks like she’s really going to stick it to employers large & small, Employers NI contributions & an increase in minimum wage. This will prevent recruitment and harm retention…super markets will just pass the price on through goods on the shelves. Very shortsighted incompetent government playing at GCSE politics

meandbobbymagee

While hearing a lot about a huge injection of cash going to the NHS and other public services I’ve yet to hear any talk of demanding more productivity and value for money in return such as seven day twenty four hour a day hospital operations and consultations to clear an enormous backlog that’s far more important than any mythical black hole in the finances. Dream on I guess when the Tories were too afraid to take that sensible step there’s no way this current mob are going to upset their union paymasters as we’ve already seen.

ProudwhiteBritish

Lots of unemployment coming as firms can’t afford more tax on employing people. This will shoot Labour firmly in the foot. They know they won’t get elected again. A minimum wage for the type of job would be a good idea. There are still lorry drivers who get £12 per hour whereas it’s a highly skilled job that would deserve at least a minimum of £18 per hour. Not just above the current minimum wage. Shelf stackers in supermarkets get more.

Has she left anything to be announced in the budget as most of it seems to have been either leaked or announced already

More often than not the trains on northern rail don’t turn up. So in order to get to work you have to either get a taxi which eat into your salary when it happens or catch a bus which they are now saying that the fixed price cap of two pounds is going by a pound to three pounds. Then these charlatans say they are not taxing the working man. The sooner we get rid of stealing Starmer and robbing Reeves the better.

Adding on from his comments about Labour’s manifesto, Shadow leader of the House of Commons Chris Philp has expressed fears that the Goverment will impose ‘extra taxes’ in today’s budget.

Here he is speaking to Kay Burley on Sky News about the proposed minimum wage increase and how it might effect ‘working people and businesses’.

Senior Labour MPs including Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper have been seen arriving into Downing Street ahead of the Budget today.

by Angharad Carrick from This is Money

Sir Keir Starmer has laid the groundwork for an increase in taxes after warning the Autumn Budget today will be ‘painful’.

Increases to the rates of income tax, national insurance and VAT have already been ruled out, making it harder to balance Britain’s books.

Instead, Starmer has said that those with the ‘broadest shoulders should bear the heaviest burden’ suggesting there will be tax rises elsewhere, with winter fuel payments already cut and rumours that employers will have to pay higher National Insurance contributions.

With the Chancellor delivering her first Budget today, we look at what Rachel Reeves could unveil, who might pay more tax and whether their plans will work.

Read more here:

Rachel Reeves risks ‘hammering the hopes’ of first-time buyers if she scraps the increased stamp duty thresholds in today’s budget, a mortgage expert has said.

The Chancellor is expected to end a temporary cut to the tax-free threshold which was imposed in the 2022 mini-budget.

The threshold currently stands at £250,000, but from April 1 next year it could be halved to £125,000.

Purplebricks Mortgages MD Jo Pocklington urged the Chancellor not to punish first-time buyers with the planned cut. She said:

Rachel Reeves appears set to hammer the hopes of many first-time buyers if she scraps the increased stamp duty thresholds in the budget.

Young Brits hoping for that first foot on the ladder face now forking out for fees they may have not factored into their costs.

The long-term effect of the Chancellor’s cost-saving call could be market stagnation after the March deadline elapses, with people simply staying put rather than moving on.

What we need from the government is more support for affordable housing schemes to help first-time buyers who are now likely looking at more time living with mum and dad, or spending more money renting.

A group of demonstrators demanding increased taxes on the wealthiest have arrived in Downing Street led by one wearing a Rachel Reeves mask.

Ahead of her historic budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has taken told Brits the Government will choose ‘investment over decline’.

The Chancellor is expected to bring in a massive £35billion a year extra for the Treasury – one of the biggest ever raids at a fiscal event.

The scale of tax increases expected in the Budget could leave Ms Reeves with two unwanted slices of history.

Official figures suggest it would be the most tax raised at a Budget since 1993, in the aftermath of the Black Wednesday Sterling crisis.

And Ms Reeves could put the country on track to pay the highest tax as a proportion of GDP since comparable records began nearly eight decades ago.

On that basis, let’s see how Reeves could compare with former chancellors dating back to the 1970s:

The Mayor of Greater Manchester has declared he will not impose a £3 single bus fare cap across the region.

The £2 fare cap on a single journey is expected to be raised in today’s budget, with the scheme extended until the end of 2025.

But Andy Burnham has insisted he will keep the cap at its current rate for buses in Greater Manchester into 2025, when it will then be reviewed.

He told BBC Breakfast earlier today:

We will proceed with our plan to introduce a new simpler, flatter fare structure based around a £2 single fare.

This said, it is only by the middle of 2025 when we have completed phase 1 of the Bee Network, and we know the level of government funding we have, that we will be in a position to judge the financial outlook for the new system.

Sir Keir Starmer has told Brits ‘there is a bright future ahead’, but admitted there will be ‘tough decisions’ to be made in today’s Budget.

The Prime Minister wrote on X earlier this morning ahead of Labour’s first fiscal event in 14 years:

Pictured: 10-year gilts yields this morning

Government borrowing costs have hit their highest level since Labour came to power as global investors brace for the Chancellor to unleash a £300billion borrowing binge.

In a blow to Rachel Reeves as she thrashes out the final details of her first Budget, the benchmark ten-year gilt yield climbed to 4.29 per cent, a rate not seen since before the General Election in July.

The yield is a key measure of how much the state has to pay to investors who lend it money through the purchase of bonds – parcels of debt known as gilts in the UK.

The rate has surged from 3.75 per cent in mid-September amid concern on the bond markets about the Chancellor’s borrowing plans and her decision to significantly loosen debt rules.

Shadow leader of the Commons Chris Philp is the latest Conservative MP to accuse Labour of lying about taxes in their manifesto.

He told Sky News this morning:

During the election campaign, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves said nothing in their plans required tax increases that went over and above what was in their manifesto, that was quite limited.

And from all the pre-briefing we’ve seen, it now looks very likely, near-certain, there are going to be enormous tax increases coming despite the fact they told the public in the election campaign that wouldn’t happen, and so I think they lied to the British public.

They misled the British public in order to get elected, and now we’re seeing their true colours.

By James Tapsfield, Political Editor for MailOnline

Rachel Reeves will make history today as the first woman to deliver a Budget in the 900-year history of the Chancellor role.

But she could also enter the record books for less welcome reasons – imposing the biggest tax-raising package in a generation, and taking the burden on Brits to a new peak.

The Treasury is making no secret that this is a big Budget that will define the Labour government.

If she pitches it wrong the jittery mood on the markets could quickly turn nasty, exposing how the government is effectively at the mercy of investors to make ends meet.

Although polls suggest Brits are open to paying a bit more if they get better services, ministers fear that sentiment may not survive contact with reality.

And failure to deliver the promised improvement could be catastrophic for Labour.

The former Prime Minister Liz Truss has given a damning verdict on how she expects the Budget will hamper business across the UK.

Appearing on TalkTV earlier this morning, she said:

This is what I tried to stop back in 2022, taxes were going higher, businesses were closing down, people are leaving the country.

We have the highest rate of millionaires leaving the country of any country in the world and what Labour seem hell bent on doing is making it even worse.

So putting the taxes up by £35bn, making the net zero rule so tough that it kills business because they can’t get cheap energy. We’ve seen the steel industry go under and we’re seeing refineries go under.

I fear this is just the start of the pain, it’s going to be a very painful day. But what will happen is because the taxes are going so high it will stop businesses investing in this country.

*This article is only available to Mail + subscribers*

by Jeff Prestridge

In a few hours’ time, we will finally discover how Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves intends to raise up to £35 billion in new taxes to pave the way towards a promised land of milk and honey – where austerity and NHS waiting lists are no more and the trains run like clockwork. (Never in a month of Sundays.)

We will find out exactly what this monstrous tax raid will mean for our household finances and our ability to save for – and enjoy – retirement.

We already have a good idea as to what taxes she will raise. There will be a hike in capital gains tax (CGT), a more draconian inheritance tax (IHT) regime, maybe restrictions in the ability to obtain tax-free cash from a pension at age 55, an increase in employer National Insurance (NI) contributions, bigger income tax bills as more people are dragged into higher tax bands, and a possible increase in the fuel duty imposed on those who drive petrol or diesel cars.

Money Mail looks at some of these tax-raising measures and how best you can prepare for them – and even, at this late stage, still mitigate them.

Read more here:

Wes Streeting has admitted that billions of pounds already set aside by Chancellor Rachel Reeves ahead of the Budget would only ‘arrest the decline’.

The Health Secretary came under fire for admitting the additional funding set to be announced today is unlikely to deliver major improvements and will not prevent patients dying while waiting for care this winter.

He told GB News:

There’s no beating about the bush about it – whether it’s the size of the waiting list, the fact that people can’t guarantee an ambulance turns up on time, the struggle to get a GP appointment or a dentist, the waits in A&E, the NHS is not just on its knees, it’s on its face.

I think people are realistic. They know that we’re not going to turn the NHS around in just a few months or in a single Budget.

It’s going to take time and that’s why the Chancellor is prioritising the NHS in her Budget.

We are linking that investment also to reform, because everything I said in opposition about waste and inefficiency in the NHS, the need to improve productivity, and we can’t keep on pouring more money in without reform – all of those things stand.

Rachel Reeves is expected to focus heavily on the health service in today’s Budget.

She will unveil plans to raise capital spending on new hospitals, scanners and technology to the highest level since 2010.

Unless we’ve got a growing economy with more good jobs paying decent wages, then you’re not going to be able to either improve living standards or bring in the tax revenue to improve our public services alongside the reform that’s needed.

But we do need that immediate injection of cash now, because otherwise we won’t be able to arrest the decline in the health service.

So that immediate injection, but then it’s through growth and reform that we ensure our public services are properly funded.

by Hugo Duncan and Emily Hawkins from This is Money

Rachel Reeves was last night accused of turning her back on economic growth as business braces for a Budget onslaught that will drive up costs and threaten livelihoods.

The Chancellor will today hit corporate Britain with an increase in employer national insurance contributions of up to 2p having previously branded the levy a ‘tax on jobs’.

The national insurance raid – which could raise as much as £20billion – comes alongside an inflation-busting 6.7 per cent increase in the minimum wage and a workers’ rights package costing firms £5billion a year.

Read more here:

Rishi Sunak, who will respond to the Budget today in one of his last acts as Tory leader, said the expected rise in NI would be a clear breach of Labour’s manifesto, which pledged not to increase income tax, National Insurance or VAT.

The former PM pointed out that the Chancellor had previously condemned the idea of raising employers’ NI as a ‘jobs tax’.

Rachel Reeves promised that her plans were fully funded, and she promised that she wouldn’t change the debt target because that would be “fiddling the figures”.

We already know that those promises are totally worthless because she is going to change her fiscal rules so she can go on a borrowing spree.

If she was to compound that by breaking her promise to the British people not to raise taxes on working people by increasing National Insurance, that would be a complete betrayal.

Rachel Reeves has posed for Budget prep pictures alongside an image of a former Communist education minister from the 1940s.

The Treasury released a photo of the Chancellor in her No11 study, with a portrait of Ellen Wilkinson proudly displayed on the wall behind her.

Ms Reeves has put Wilkinson, who helped found the British Communist Party and met both Lenin and Trotsky, in the place previously occupied by Tory ex-chancellor Nigel Lawson.

Read more here:

Chancellor Rachel Reeves will press ahead with an inflation-busting rise in the minimum wage today, despite warnings it will cost jobs.

She has signed off a 6.7 per cent hike in the National Living Wage, taking it to £12.21 per hour – almost four times the current inflation of 1.7 per cent. Ms Reeves has also agreed a record 16.3 per cent in the rate for those aged 18 to 20, taking it to £10 an hour.

She last night described the move as a ‘significant step’ towards Labour’s manifesto promise to introduce a ‘genuine living wage for working people’.

But she was warned that the bumper rise, coming on top of an expected Budget hike in employers’ national insurance, could cost jobs.

Baroness Stroud, chairman of the Low Pay Commission, which advises ministers on the minimum wage, said there were growing signs firms were struggling to cope with a series of rapid rises:

The Government have been clear about their ambitions for the national minimum wage and its importance in supporting workers’ living standards. At the same time, employers have had to deal with the adult rate rising over 20 per cent in two years.

Robert Colvile, of the Centre for Policy Studies think-tank, said: ‘Given the state of the employment market there is a real risk that this will result in fewer jobs overall.’

Millions of the lowest-paid are in line for an inflation-busting pay boost after Rachel Reeves last night revealed large increases to minimum wage rates.

On the eve of her first Budget, the Chancellor announced the National Living Wage – for those aged 21 and over – will rise from £11.44 to £12.21 an hour in April next year.

The Treasury said the 6.7 per cent increase would be worth £1,400 a year for an eligible full-time worker and will directly benefit more than three million workers.

Meanwhile, the National Minimum Wage – for 18 to 20-year-olds – will rise from £8.60 to £10 an hour from April in a 16.3 per cent increase.

This will be the largest increase on record, with the £1.40 hike meaning full-time younger workers will have their pay boosted by £2,500 next year.

Labour said it was the first step towards achieving their general election manifesto pledge of removing age bands in minimum wage rates.

Here are just some of the announcements we should hear when Rachel Reeves delivers her statement in the Commons:

• Employers’ National Insurance to rise by up to 2p – The threshold at which NI is paid will also be cut as part of a package raising around £20 billion.
• Income tax –The six-year freeze in thresholds, which is due to end in 2028 will be extended for another year, dragging hundreds of thousands of people into higher tax bands.
• Private schools – From January, government will remove VAT exemption and end business rates relief for private schools.
• Bus fares – The £2 fare cap on a single journey will be raised to £3, with the scheme extended until the end of 2025.
• Minimum wage – National living wage to jump 6.7 per cent to £12.21 per hour, with 16.3 per cent rise for under-21s, who will get £10 per hour.
• Fiscal rules – Ms Reeves will change the Treasury’s definition of debt to allow the government to borrow up to £50 billion extra for investment in infrastructure, although she is expected to spend only half that today to limit the risk of a market backlash.
• Stamp duty – Ms Reeves will end a temporary cut, meaning that the tax-free threshold will be halved from £250,000 to £125,000.
• Fuel duty – The industry expects Ms Reeves to end the temporary 5p-a-litre cut in fuel duty introduced after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But she is thought to be backing away from a bigger hike and could even freeze it for the remainder of the parliament.
• Inheritance tax –The Chancellor will tighten reliefs for agricultural land and could extend the time someone has to stay alive after passing on money as a gift tax-free from seven years to 10.
• Capital gains – The rate paid on the sale of assets like shares will be increased, but Ms Reeves is expected to spare second home owners a further rise.
• NHS – Billions of pounds of funding, including £1.5 billion for new surgical hubs and scanners to cut waiting lists.
• Energy – The Chancellor will increase the windfall tax on the big energy firms, despite warnings that a fall in the oil price means it will yield nothing.
• Education – Ms Reeves will confirm £1.4 billion to rebuild crumbling schools, along with cash to fund new breakfast clubs.
• Housing – Discounts for people looking to buy their own council home will be slashed by up to two-thirds as part of a plan to boost the stock of social housing.
• Smoking – The Chancellor is expected to increase tax on both e-cigarettes and traditional tobacco products to discourage their use.

Before we build-up for today’s Budget, let’s take a look at how The Daily Mail newspaper previews the Chancellor’s statement

by Jason Groves, Political Editor of The Daily Mail

Rachel Reeves will unveil a £35 billion tax bomb today, in what critics dubbed ‘the biggest heist in modern political history.’

In one of the most consequential Budgets for years, the Chancellor will set Britain on a course of high tax, high spending and high borrowing in a gamble designed to kickstart growth.

In remarks released last night, Ms Reeves said: ‘The only way to drive economic growth is to invest, invest, invest.

Read more here:

Rachel Reeves, Britain’s first female Chancellor, will make further history today when she delivers her maiden Budget in Parliament this afternoon.

So who is she? How did she come into politics?

Reeves was born in Lewisham, south-east London in 1979 just months before Margaret Thatcher was elected prime minister.

She once told the BBC that her family ‘weren’t poor but we didn’t have money to waste’ as he recalled how her mother would tick off items on a bank statement against receipts.

Her parents separated when she was at primary school which meant she was shuttled between homes along with her sister Ellie, also a Labour MP.

She became a national under-14 chess champion after her father taught her at an early age which she credits as helping her to think ahead and plan a strategy.

She joined the Labour Party aged 16 and studied philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) at Oxford University before later enrolling at the London School of Economics.

She later worked as a Bank of England economist before she was elected to the seat of Leeds West at the 2010 general election.

Reeves first joined the front bench under Ed Miliband’s leadership but returned to the backbenches when Jeremy Corbyn was Leader of the Opposition.

In May 2021, Keir Starmer appointed her shadow chancellor during a reshuffle following the demotion of Anneliese Dodds.

• Age: 45
• Place of birth: Lewisham
• Education: New College, Oxford and the London School of Economics
• Family: Married to Nicholas Joicey, a senior civil servant and former speechwriter to Gordon Brown during his time as chancellor. They have two children.
• Parliamentary constituency: Leeds West and Pudsey

Today’s Autumn Budget is the first one to be delivered by a Labour government and comes 118 days after Sir Keir Starmer swept to power with a landslide majority at the general election.

The showpiece fiscal event is traditionally held once a year by governments to set out their plans on whether to raise or lower taxes as well as spending on health, schools, the police and other public services.

New governments often set out a budget quickly into their first term to outline their priorities that were perhaps included in the party manifesto before an election victory.

Rachel Reeves will deliver her maiden budget in the Commons after Prime Minister’s Questions in a speech usually lasting an hour.

When she sits down, the Conservatives will immediately respond with former prime minister Rishi Sunak likely to lead the charge in one of his final acts as leader before his successor is declared on Saturday.

Hello and welcome to MailOnline’s live coverage of the Autumn Budget – the first to be delivered by a Labour government in 14 years.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves will today embark on the most momentous day of her political career when she arrives at the Commons with her red box to outline the government’s tax plans.

She will address MPs at around 12:30pm amid intense speculation over how she will balance the books after she accused the Tories of leaving her with a £22 billion black hole.

Stick with us as we bring you the latest developments throughout the day including analysis and reaction from our political reporters in Westmimster and our This Is Money team who will break down how the Budget affects you and your finances going forward.

As always, we’re keen to hear from our readers so let us know what you think by emailing [email protected].