Autumn Budget 2024: Live updates as Chancellor Rachel Reeves unveils Labour’s £40 billion tax raid

Rachel Reeves delivered her historic Budget with a promise to ‘fix the foundations’ of the British economy and revitalise growth.

Britain’s first female Chancellor then spent 77 minutes in the Commons outlining Labour’s vision to rebuild the country after 14 years of Conservative rule.

‘The only way to deliver growth is to invest, invest, invest – there are no shortcuts,’ she said.

Let’s recap the main points from her address:

• Compensation package worth more than £13 billion earmarked for the infected blood and Post Office scandals
• Taxes will rise by £40billion overall
• Reeves promises a crackdown on fraud – saving £4.3billion annual by 2029
• Government plans to bring down benefits, set to publish a white paper on getting ‘economically inactive’ Britons back to work. Reeves promises £240million for 16 projects
• National living wage increased by 6.7 per cent to £12.21 per hour. National minimum wage for under 21s to rise to £10 per hour with plans to gradually bring in line with older workforce
• Increase in carer’s allowance confirmed, bringing it to the equivalent of 16 hours at the National Living Wage per week. A carer will now earn more than £10,000 a year whilst receiving the allowance
• Fuel duty frozen. ‘No higher taxes at the petrol pumps next year,’ says Reeves
• No increase in VAT, national insurance or income taxes for workers
• Increase in employers’ national insurance contributions by 1.2 percentage points to 15 per cent by 2025
• And threshold at which employers start paying NI on an employee’s salary will fall from £9,100 per year to £5,000
• But employment allowance for small business increased from £5,000 to £10,500
• Capital gains tax: Increase in lower rate from 10 to 18 per cent and higher rate of 20 per cent to 24 per cent. Still the lowest of any European G7 economy
• Inheritance tax thresholds freeze extended to 2030
• Inherited pensions brought into IHT from 2027
• IHT to apply with 50 per cent relief on agricultural land worth more than £1million
• Air passenger duty increased by further 50 per cent for private jets
• Hospitality set for 40 per cent relief on business rates
• 1.7 per cent cut in draught alcohol duty – ‘a penny off a pint in the pub’, according to Reeves
• Vape tax: Flat rate of duty on all vaping liquid from October 2026, alongside increase in tobacco duty
• Abolition of non-dom tax regime, replaced with ‘residents-based scheme’
• Reeves maintains existing incentives for EVs in company car tax from 2028
• Private equity: Carried interest threshold raised to 32 per cent
• VAT on private school fees from January 2025 confirmed – changes to business rates relief on the way
• No extension to freeze in income tax and national insurance thresholds – they will be uprated in line with inflation
• Stamp duty land surcharge for second-homes will increase to 5 per cent from tomorrow
• Oil and gas profits windfall tax increased to 38 per cent
• Current 75 per cent discount to business rates will be replaced by a discount of 40 per cent up to a maximum discount of £110,000
• Right to buy: Councils will be able to keep all the money raised through sales

Public spending:

• Government will invest extra £100billion over the next five years in capital spending
• £22.6billion increase in day-to-day health budget. Further £3.6billion for capital spending
• Public spending to rise by 1.5 per cent in real terms – no return to austerity, says Reeves
• Schools budget increased by £2.3billion next year. Triple investment in breakfast clubs, hiring ‘thousands’ more teachers, extra spending on mainstream and special needs education
• Nato commitments: Reeves says Government will sped 2.5 per cent of GDP on Defence – increase of £2.9billion next year
• £5billion invested in housebuilding, as well as funding for dangerous cladding removal
• Fresh funding for devolved governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as English regions
• £500million increase in road maintenance budget
• Funding of National Wealth Fund to invest in growth. Among plans to invest in ‘the industries of the future’, the Government has earmarked almost £1billion for aerospace, more than £2billion for the automotive sector and up to £520million for a new Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing fund
• 11 new ‘green hydrogen’ projects across England, Scotland and Wales
• £3.4billion for ‘warm homes plan’
• Establishment of GB Energy in Aberdeen

OBR Projections:

• OBR projections expect GDP growth of 2, 1.8 and 1.5 per cent over 2025, 2026 and 2027, respectively
• On inflation, the OBR says CPI will average 2.5 per cent this year, 2.6 per cent in 2025, then 2.3 per cent in 2026, 2.1 per cent in 2027, 2.1 per cent in 2028 and 2 per cent in 2029
• Public sector net borrowing to fall from 4.5 per cent of GDP to 2.1 per cent by 2029

The Budget marks a ‘very historic day’ in the Commons, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has said, but he warned it may not offer people ‘a sense of hope, urgency and the promise of a fair deal’.

Sir Ed told the Commons:

This is a very historic day – the first Budget that’s been presented by a female Chancellor (Rachel Reeves). And I want to congratulate the Chancellor and I’m sure she’s blazing the trail for women and girls who are watching our proceedings today.

There can be no doubt about the enormous task that’s facing the Chancellor today. After years of chaos and decline under the Conservatives, their appalling economic legacy, set out so clearly in the figures today, is being felt by people across the United Kingdom.

He continued:

So people were looking to this Budget for a clean break with those failures of the last few years, for a sense of hope, urgency and the promise of a fair deal.

But I fear the Budget won’t deliver all that. The Conservatives left behind an enormous mess in our NHS but I’m afraid it won’t be fixed unless the Government fixes social care, too. The cost of living crisis won’t be solved by hitting families, pensioners, family farms and struggling small businesses, and our economy won’t grow strongly again unless we repair our broken relationship with Europe.

Cash-strapped parents hit by Labour’s VAT raid on private school fees plan to use credit cards, loans and even remortgage their homes or sell property to cover the extra cost, research has found.

Nine in ten parents are currently able to fund their children’s education through wages and income from investments.

But, once 20 pc VAT is levied on fees by the Government in what has been dubbed an ‘act of class war’, as many as 27 pc of parents are likely to fall short and many are likely to take on extra debt, according to the research from specialist lender Pepper Money.

Read more here:

In his last meaningful act as Conservative leader, Rishi Sunak led his party’s response to the Budget as he attacked Labour over a £40 billion tax raid designed to deliver economic growth.

Here’s the main takeaways following the former prime minster’s speech:

• Rishi Sunak said the Budget contained ‘broken promise after broken promise’ as he accused Labour of ‘fiddling the figures’ and spending far more than they promised before the election
• The outgoing Tory leader said Chancellor Rachel Reeves had ‘sought to politicise’ the independent Office for Budget Responsibility and said Labour was damaging the country for ‘political purposes’
• Mr Sunak said the government’s own assessment shows its ‘French-style’ labour laws will cost businesses £5 billion while tax increases on employers would ‘hobble growth’
• He also dismissed claims Labour inherited a ‘£22 billion black hole’ claiming the UK was borrowing less than France, America, Italy and Japan and has the second lowest debt in the whole of the G7

The overall tax burden in the UK is forecast to rise from the equivalent of 36.4% of GDP (gross domestic product, or the total value of the economy) in 2024/25, to a ‘historic high’ of 38.3% in 2027/28, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).

This is 5.2 percentage points above the pre-pandemic level of 33.1% in 2019/20.

The level is forecast to then fall slightly in 2028/29 to 38.2%.

The increase is driven ‘mainly by personal taxes’, including the impact of changes in employer rates of national insurance, and ‘capital taxes’, reflecting the likely path of equity and property prices, the OBR said.

Comparable data showing the overall UK tax burden or ‘tax take’ as a share of GDP begins in 1948

Rachel Reeves delivered a massive £40billion ‘tax bomb’ Budget that could define the Labour government today.

The Chancellor said the country had ‘voted for change’ and vowed to ‘invest, invest, invest’ as she mounted what looks set to be the biggest raid in history in the Commons.

The scale of the package – despite Keir Starmer previously claiming there was no need for taxes beyond what the £8billion in the Labour manifesto – is even greater than thought.

Read more here:

Concluding his speech, Sunak said: ‘The PM has talked relentlessly about trust yet today’s budget reveals above all that the Labour party did not tell the truth

‘They said they would not fiddle the figures, they have. They said they would not increase borrowing, they have. They said they wouldn’t raise taxes on working people, they have.’

‘Broken promise after broken promise and it is the working people of this country that will pay the price.’

Sunak claims taxes across the UK are ‘going up’.

He said: ‘They’re taxing your job, they’re taxing your business, they’re taxing your home, they’re taxing your savings.

‘I said it during the election campaign: “You name it, they’ll tax it”.’

This is Money’s Simon Lambert says Rachel Reeves is gambling on growth and improved productivity as a result of her Budget.

Rachel Reeves decision to hike employer national insurance contributions from 13.8 per cent to 15 per cent was no surprise and allows the Chancellor to claim she is keeping Labour’s promise of not raising taxes on working people.

While it won’t show up their pay packet, this is an indirect tax rise for working people. Employers will see the cost of hiring staff and giving employees a pay rise and this will inevitably take its toll on jobs and wages at some point. Reducing the threshold it is charged at to £5,000 will also have a major effect.

Rachel Reeves’s gamble is that her Budget will deliver growth and improved productivity for the UK, meaning our wages will start to consistently rise above inflation.

Whether any Budget boost outweighs the drag of higher employer NI remains to be seen – we won’t know the answer to that for many years.

The Chancellor stopped short of imposing employer NI on pension contributions, however, which would have been a terrible move. We need to increase employer pension contributions rather than impose taxes on them.

Ending the income tax threshold freeze in 2028/2029 rather than extending it is good, but by then the damage to people’s incomes from failing to raise tax bands with inflation or wages for years will have been done.

Sunak claimed the OBR has forecast growth today will be lower than it was expected to be under the Conservatives.

Sunak has accused Chancellor Rachel Reeves of failing ‘to get a grip on public spending’.

Sunak claimed Reeves has no plan to reign in welfare spending. He added: ‘She has no meaningful plan to deliver the £20bn of saving available if the public returned to its pre pandemic levels of productivity.’

Sunak is continuing to lay into Labour. He said: ‘The Chancellor inherited lower borrowing than France America Italy and Japan and the second lowest debt in the whole of the G7.

‘So any claims about their inheritance are ludicrous

‘These are her choices so stop blaming everyone else and take responsibility for them.’

The Office for Budget Responsibility said Rachel Reeves’ plan ‘delivers a large, sustained increase in spending, taxation, and borrowing’.

Public spending increases by almost £70 billion a year over the next five years.

As a result, the size of the state is forecast to settle at 44% of GDP (gross domestic product) by the end of the decade, almost five percentage points higher than before the pandemic.

Half of the increase was funded through tax hikes raising around £36 billion a year and pushing the tax take to a ‘historic high of 38% of GDP by 2029-30’.

The other half is funded by £32 billion a year of increased borrowing, which the OBR called ‘one of the largest fiscal loosenings of any fiscal event in recent decades’.

Sunak said: ‘The OBR has today declined to back up claims of a £22bn black hole. It actually appears nowhere in their report.

‘It is deeply deeply disappointing to see that she has politicised the independent OBR that should be above party politics.’

The Daily Mail’s This is Money team have compiled a snap analsyis of the winners and losers from Rachel Reeves’ Budget.

• Low-paid young people – minimum wage rises by a record £1.40 an hour for the under-21s from April 2025, from £8.60 to £10.00. Up from £11.44 to £12.21 an hour for the over-21s.
• Pensioners and benefits claimants – benefits including Universal Credit, PIP and Child Benefit to rise up to 1.7 per cent in April 2025.
• Drivers – 5p per litre Fuel Duty cut will be kept into 2025.
• Carers – A carer can now earn over £10,000 a year whilst receiving the allowance, up from £7,852.

• Second home buyers – Stamp Duty on second homes will rise 2 percentage points to 5 per cent from tomorrow.
• Investors and landlords – Capital Gains Tax will increase from 10 to 18 per cent (lower rate taxpayers) and 20 to 24 per cent (higher rate). This hits second home owners and investors in shares not held in an Isa.
• Smokers – Tobacco prices by rise by RPI plus 2 per cent, or 10 per cent on rolling tobacco.
• Small businesses – threshold at which employers start paying NI on an employee’s salary will fall from £9,100 per year to £5,000. But employment allowance for small business increased from £5,000 to £10,500.

Sunak is continuing his reply. He said: ‘They have raised tax to record levels, they have broken their promises and it will be the working people of this country that are going to pay the price.

‘Be in no doubt their misleading claims about the state of the economy are nothing but a cinical, poltiical device.’

After around an hour and 20 mintues, Rachel Reeves has finished delivering her statement in the Commons.

Rishi Sunak is now responding on behalf of the Conservatives.

Let’s recap some of the measures announced in her speech:

• Ms Reeves said she would set aside £11.8billion for compensation for the infected blood scandal, and £1.8billion for victims of the Post Office scandal
• The Chancellor insisted that she will toughen the day-to-day spending rules so the books must be balanced in 2029-30. From then on it will have to be balanced in the third year of the forecast
• Employers’ national insurance contributions will rise by 1.2 percentage points to 15 per cent in April 2025, and the threshold for paying them will fall from £9,100 per year to £5,000 in a move raising £25 billion
• The state pension is projected to rise 4.1 per cent in 2025-26 – a £470 increase for over 12 million pensioners in the UK
• The stamp duty land tax surcharge for second homes will increase by two percentage points to five per cent, and will come into effect from Thursday
• The OBR has predicted inflation will stay higher for longer than thought, sparking doubts about whether interest rates will fall as quickly as hoped
• Carer’s Allowance will be available for people who work 16 hours a week at the minimum wage
• The Government is setting a ‘two percent productivity, efficiency and savings target for all departments to meet next year’
• Ms Reeves said research and development funding will be protected in the settlement

Rishi Sunak has now taken to the dispatch box to respond to the Chancellor’s budget.

He said: ‘His (Keir Starmer) actions speack for themselves with a budget that contains broken promise after broken promise.’

He accused the PM and the Chancellor of ‘not being straight with the British people’.

Reeves said in her closing remarks: This is a moment of fundamental choice for Britain. I have made my choices. The responsible choices.

‘To restore stability to our country. To protect working people. More teachers in our schools. More appointments in our NHS. More homes being built. Fixing the foundations of our economy. Investing in our future. Delivering change. Rebuilding Britain.

‘We on these benches commend those choices and I commend this Statement to the House.’

The Chancellor has just announced the health budget will increase by more than £25 billion after promising more investment for the NHS.

Rachel Reeves said an extra £22.6 billion will be allocated to the day-to-day health budget while £3.1bn will be given for capital investment.

This is the largest real-terms growth in day to day NHS spending outside of Covid since 2010.

Reeves has announced £6.7bn of funding for the Department for Education to invest in schools.

This includes £1.4bn to rebuild over 500 schools in ‘the greatest need’.

Ms Reeves confirmed the Government is committed to HS2 terminating at Euston but suggested private investment may be required to complete the project.

The Transport Secretary has also set out a plan for how to get a grip of HS2.

Today, we are securing delivery of the project between Old Oak Common and Birmingham and we are committing the funding required to begin tunnelling work to London Euston station catalysing private investment into the local area.

Reeves has announced funding for 11 new green hydrogen projects across the UK, including in Bridgend and Barrow in Furness.

She said: ‘The Transport Secretary has also set out a plan for how to get a grip of HS2. Today, we are securing delivery of the project between Old Oak Common and Birmingham and we are committing the funding required to begin tunnelling work to London Euston station catalysing private investment into the local area.’

Rachel Reeves has said Right to Buy discounts will be reduced in an effort to increase affordable housing.

She told the Commons:

I can today confirm that the Government will reduce Right to Buy discounts and local authorities will be able to retain the full receipts from any sales of social housing to reinvest back into their existing stock, and into new supply so that we give more people a safe, secure and affordable place to live.

Reeves has announced £650m of local transport funding ‘to improve connections across our country’.

She added: ‘We will extend the bus cap for a further year setting it at £3 until December 2025.’

This is Money’s Simon Lambert says:

Rachel Reeves has imposed a hefty capital gains tax hike on investors’ profits from stocks and shares, raising rates from 10 per cent to 18 per cent for basic rate taxpayers and 20 per cent to 24 per cent for higher rate band taxpayers.

Capital gains tax hasn’t traditionally been a problem for many small investors, as the tax-free annual allowance was reasonably generous at £12,300.

But that situation shifted dramatically after Jeremy Hunt slashed the annual capital gains tax-free allowance to just £3,000.

This means that Rachel Reeves’ rises has the potential to hit Britain’s army of small investors who have long-term shareholdings built up through work share save schemes and old certificate holdings, which are unlikely to be protected by an Isa wrapper.

Her move highlights how important it is to take advantage of a stocks and shares Isa when investing, which protects you against tax on profits and dividends.

Reeves said: ‘To unlock these growth industries of the future, we will protect government investment in research and development with more than £20bn of funding.

‘This includes at least £6.1bn to protect core research funding for areas like engineering, biotechnology and medical science through Research England, other research councils, and the National Academies.

‘We will extend the Innovation Accelerators programme in Glasgow, in Manchester and in the West Midlands. And with over £500m of funding next year, my RHF the Science, Technology and Innovation Secretary, will continue to drive progress in improving fast, reliable broadband and mobile coverage across our country, including in rural areas.’

Reeves announced Manchester and West Midlands will be the first to receive integrated settlements from next year.

These will ‘give mayors meaningful control of funding for their local areas.’

Reeves has announced a package of additional funding for local governments.

This will include: ‘£1.3bn for addditonal grant funding to dleiver essential services, with at least £600m in grant funding for social care and £230m to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping’.

Earlier we reported the Ministry of Defence was set to receive a Budget boost and now Ms Reeves announces schools will as well

She told the Commons, the core schools budget will increase by £2.3 billion next year to help recruit more teachers into key subjects.

She added an additional £300m would be made available for further education so ‘our young people can develop the skills that they need for the future’.

Reeves said: ‘Today, I am announcing a total increase to the Ministry of Defence’s Budget of £2.9bn next year ensuring the UK comfortably exceeds our NATO commitments and providing guaranteed military support to Ukraine of £3bn per year, for as long as it takes.’

Reeves has said she will not extend a freeze on income tax thresholds beyond 2028.

She said: ‘The previous government froze income tax and National Insurance thresholds in 2021 and then they did so again after the mini-Budget.

‘Extending their threshold freeze for a further two years raises billions of pounds. Money to deal with the black hole in our public finances and repair our public services.

‘Having considered the issue closely I have come to the conclusion that extending the threshold freeze would hurt working people. It would take more money out of their payslips.

“I am keeping every single promise on tax that I made in our manifesto. So there will be no extension of the freeze in income tax and National Insurance thresholds beyond the decisions of the previous government.

‘From 2028-29, personal tax thresholds will be uprated in line with inflation once again. When it comes to choices on tax, this government chooses to protect working people every single time.’

Rachel Reeves has confirmed Labour will impose VAT on private school fees from January 2025.

Rachel Reeves has announced draught duty on alcoholic drinks will fall by 1.7%, meaning ‘a penny off a pint in the pub’, the Chancellor has announced.

I can confirm that alcohol duty rates on non-draught products will increase in line with RPI from February next year.

But nearly two-thirds of alcoholic drinks sold in pubs are served on draught. So today, instead of uprating these products in line with inflation I am cutting draught duty by 1.7% which means a penny off a pint in the pub.

Reeves said: ‘We are increasing the stamp-duty land tax surcharge for second-homes known as the ‘Higher Rate for Additional Dwellings’ by 2 percentage points, to 5%, which will come into effect from tomorrow.

‘This will support over 130,000 additional transactions from people buying their first home, or moving home over, the next five years.’

Reeves said the Government ‘will abolish the non-dom tax regime and remove the outdated concept of domicile from the tax system from 2025..

This will be replaced with a new .residents based scheme’.

Rachel Reeves has announced a ‘flat rate duty’ on vaping liquid from October 2026.

The Chancellor said:

I can confirm that the Government will renew the Tobacco Duty escalator for the remainder of this Parliament at RPI+2%, increase duty by a further 10% on hand-rolling tobacco this year, introduce a flat rate duty on all vaping liquid from October 2026, alongside an additional one off- increase in tobacco duty to maintain the incentive to give up smoking.

And we will increase the Soft Drinks Industry Levy to account for inflation since it was introduced as well as increasing the duty in line with CPI each year going forward. These measures will raise nearly £1bn per year by the end of the forecast period.

Reeves said she would increase the rates of air passenger duty by 50% for private jets.

She said this will be the equivalent of £450 per passenger for a private jet.

Reeves said she will increase the duty on hand rolling tobacco by 10% and introduce a flat rate duty on all vaping liquid from October 2026

She added there will also be a one off increase in tobacco duty to put people off smoking.

Ms Reeves has revealed inheritance tax thresholds will be frozen for a further two years until 2030.

The Chancellor told MPs:

Only 6% of estates will pay inheritance tax this year. I understand the strongly held desire to pass down savings to children and grandchildren. So I am taking a balanced approach in my package today.

First, the previous government froze inheritance tax thresholds until 2028. I will extend that freeze for a further two years, until 2030.

That means the first £325,000 of any estate can be inherited tax-free rising to £500,000 if the estate includes a residence passed to direct descendants and £1m when a tax free allowance is passed to a surviving spouse or civil partner.

Reeves said: ‘Today, we will increase the lower rate of Capital Gains Tax from 10% to 18%, and the Higher Rate from 20% to 24% while maintaining the rates of capital gains tax on residential property at 18% and 24%, too.

‘This means the UK will still have the lowest Capital Gains Tax rate of any European G7 economy.’

Reeves has announced an increase of the employment allowance from £5,000 to £10,500.

She said this will mean 865,000 employers won’t pay any national insurance next year.

Rachel Reeves has confirmed National Insurance contributions will be increased in a move that will raise £25 billion.

The Chancellor said it was a difficult decision to make but insisted it was the right one.

We will increase the rate of Employers’ National Insurance by 1.2 percentage points, to 15%, from April 2025. And we will reduce the Secondary Threshold – the level at which employers start paying national insurance on each employee’s salary – from £9,100 per year to £5,000.

This will raise £25bn per year by the end of the forecast period. I know that this is a difficult choice. I do not take this decision lightly.

Ms Reeves has just announced she will freeze fuel duty for another year.

The Chancellor said she would maintain the existing 5p cut as increasing it ‘would be the wrong choice’.

‘There will be no higher taxes at the petrol pumps this year,’ she told the Commons.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves, turning to household finances, said:

Today, the OBR says CPI inflation will average 2.5% this year, 2.6% in 2025, then 2.3% in 2026, 2.1% in 2027, 2.1% in 2028 and 2% in 2029.

Ms Reeves said the Budget ‘marks an end to short-termism’, adding the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has published a ‘detailed assessment’ of the growth impacts of the Government’s policies over the next decade.

The OBR forecast that real GDP growth will be 1.1% in 2024, 2% in 2025, 1.8% in 2026, 1.5% in 2027, 1.5% in 2028 and 1.6% in 2029. And the OBR are clear: this Budget will permanently increase the supply capacity of the economy, boosting long-term growth.

Reeves said: ‘I can confirm that we will accept the Low Pay Commission recommendation to increase the National Living Wage by 6.7% to £12.21 an hour, worth up to £1,400 a year for a full-time worker.

‘And for the first time, we will move towards a single adult rate, phased in over time, by initially increasing the National Minimum Wage for 18-20 year olds by 16.3% as recommended by the Low Pay Commission, taking it to £10 an hour. A Labour policy to protect working people, being delivered by a Labour government once again.’

Reeves has announced she will shortly be appointing a ‘Covid Corruption Commissioner’.

The Chancellor said: ‘As set out in our manifesto, I will shortly be appointing our Covid Corruption Commissioner, leading our work to uncover those companies that used a national emergency to line their own pockets.

‘Because that money belongs in our public services. And taxpayers want it back.

‘And I can confirm today that David Goldstone has been appointed as the Chair of the new Office for Value for Money to help us realise the benefits from every pound of public spending.’

Government borrowing for this year is expected to reach £127 billion, the Chancellor has said.

Rachel Reeves has also said there will be a 2% productivity and savings target for all Government departments.

She told the Commons:

Today we are setting a 2% productivity, efficiency and savings target for all departments to meet next year by using technology more effectively and joining up services across government.

The Budget “raises taxes” by £40 billion, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said.

Revealing the figure, which is higher than originally expected, Ms Reeves said any ‘responsible chancellor would take action.’

Reeves accuses the Tory Government of failing to budget for the costs of compensation schemes for the infected blood scandal and the Post Office scandal.

She announced Labour will provide £11.8bn for those infected and afftected with infected blood and £1.8bn for the victims of the Post Office scandal.

Reeves have accused the Conservative Party of hiding ‘the reality of their public spending plans’ .

She added that the Tories’ cut in National Insurace during their budget in March ‘was the height of irresponsibility’.

Rachel Reeves has said she is ‘deeply proud to be the first female Chancellor’.

She issued a heartwarming message to girls and women in the UK, saying ‘let there be no ceiling on your hopes, ambitions and dreams’.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has taken to the dispatch box to deliver the budget, with a huge roar from the Commons.

She starts by addressing Labour’s mandate to bring ‘stability to our economy’, ‘to fix the foundations’ and bring about change to the country.

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.

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.

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 jamie.bullen@mailonline.co.uk.