Britain’s unpopular centre-left Labour government sought to seize the political narrative on Wednesday with a tax-raising budget that it hopes will boost economic growth, reduce child poverty and ease cost of living pressures.
But the chaos that has engulfed the government during weeks of mixed messaging and political infighting continued up to the final moment. The entire contents of the budget were leaked half an hour before Treasury chief Rachel Reeves delivered the budget statement in the House of Commons.
The government was elected in a landslide victory in July 2024 on a promise not to raise taxes on income for working people, and Reeves acknowledged some of the budget’s £26 billion (US$34 billion) in tax hikes broke the spirit of that pledge and would face criticism.
But, she said, “I have yet to see a credible or a fairer alternative plan for working people.
“These are my choices – the right choices for a fairer, a stronger, and a more secure Britain,” she said.
The biggest change in terms of money raised is freezing the thresholds at which earners pay Britain’s different tax levels for a further three years from 2028, meaning as wages rise, more people fall into higher tax brackets.