Budget: Blow to investors and startups ‘hidden’ in small print November 26, 2025 A blow to investors and early-stage businesses has been revealed in the small print of Rachel Reeves‘ Budget. The tax relief available on venture capital trusts has been slashed, according to the full Budget document released by the Treasury following Reeves’s speech in the House of Commons. While the venture capital trusts’ annual and lifetime [...]
Budget: Kemi Badenoch slams ‘shameless’ Rachel Reeves November 26, 2025 The mood in the House of Commons morphed from rowdy to somewhat tense following the Budget, as Kemi Badenoch launched a series of scathing political and personal attacks on Rachel Reeves. The Conservative leader slammed the Chancellor’s position as “untenable”, and her fiscal announcements as a “Budget for Benefits Street”. Badenoch said: “I hope she [...]
Autumn Budget: Reeves splurges £12bn on welfare as two-child benefit cap ditched November 26, 2025 The UK’s fiscal watchdog has forecast welfare spending to soar over the next few years after the Labour government ditched plans to reform the welfare state. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which accidentally published its report before the Budget, has said welfare spending will rise by £12bn in the fiscal year 2029-30, when compared [...]
Budget ‘chaos’ may stall interest rate cuts November 26, 2025 The “chaos” around Budget measures may delay further interest rate cuts as the Bank of England figures through the effects of a flurry of tax rises, despite Rachel Reeves’ stated commitment to set the conditions for borrowing costs to be lowered. The Chancellor has said curbing the cost of living was a key “priority” at [...]
City readies up for Labour’s borrowing spree November 26, 2025 Fixed income investors are readying for the Debt Management Office (DMO) to boost its gilt issuance for the current financial year, otherwise the level of UK government debt sold to traders, as the Labour government ploughs ahead with its borrowing spree. The DMO, an independent government body that oversees the sale of UK government bonds, [...]
Jeremy Hunt issues Budget warning to Rachel Reeves November 26, 2025 Former Chancellor Sir Jeremy Hunt has issued a warning to Rachel Reeves hours before the Budget and revealed what he is most worried his successor will announce later today. The Conservative MP, who held the role under Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak from 2022 to 2024, also outlined his predictions for this year’s Budget including [...]
Autumn Budget Live: Wealthy, landlords and pensions hit in £26bn tax raid November 26, 2025 Welcome back to the Morning Wire liveblog. In a shocking turn of events the UK fiscal watchdog has accidentally released the economic forecasts – intended to be published after the Budget – before the Chancellor even took to the despatch box. Rachel Reeves has raised taxes by £26bn in her second Budget, which follows on [...]
Budget Day: The good, the bad and the ugly November 26, 2025 It seems as if we’ve been speculating about the contents of today’s Budget since the moment Rachel Reeves sat down after delivering her first one, just over a year ago. Since then, unemployment has risen (every month) and growth rates have slumped quarter-to-quarter from 0.7 per cent to 0.3 per cent to 0.1 per cent. [...]
Business chiefs: Employment will be hit by minimum wage hike November 25, 2025 Business chiefs have criticised Rachel Reeves’ decision to hike the national living wage by more than 4 per cent for most British workers at the Budget. In a final announcement before unveiling the full set of fiscal measures, the Chancellor said she would back the Low Pay Commission’s recommendations to raise the minimum wage to [...]
Labour MP warns Budget could force founders out of UK November 25, 2025 A Labour backbencher has joined industry leaders and a left-leaning pressure group in warning that the Budget could kill the UK’s aspirations of building a competitor to Silicon Valley and force more firms to look for investment outside of the country. In an open letter to Rachel Reeves, Sarah Edwards, a Labour MP who sits [...]