"When Rachel Reeves urged Labour MPs at a half-empty private meeting on Monday night to back her high stakes budget, she told them that while they might not like everything in it, she was convinced that overall it was fair. After weeks of anxiety on the backbenches over manifesto breaches and speculation over Keir Starmer's leadership, she was determined to reassure them that her plans were Labour through and through and would give them plenty to offer voters on the doorstep."
"After dropping plans for a manifesto-busting income tax rate rise because of higher wage growth and destabilising speculation over Starmer's future, Reeves has been forced to bring in a much broader mix of measures. The risk of it all unravelling is high. Labour figures are anxious about a repeat of George Osborne's notorious omnishambles budget. There are now multiple opportunities for it all to go wrong, admits one Downing Street insider."
Rachel Reeves urged Labour MPs to back a high-stakes Budget while acknowledging some measures might be unpopular. The Budget is presented as a package that cannot be picked apart. Labour backbench anxiety intensified after manifesto breaches and leadership speculation, forcing a broader mix of measures and withdrawal of a planned income-tax rise due to higher wage growth. The Chancellor prioritised cutting NHS waiting lists, paying down national debt and reducing the cost of living without returning to austerity or extra borrowing. Fiscal rules implied higher taxes to create headroom for shocks, raising risks of internal dissent and perceptions of a disjointed package.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]