The Leaky War: How Rachel Reeves and the OBR came to blows Economics Between 5:16am and 11:30am on the day of the Budget, as Rachel Reeves was putting the finishing touches to her House of Commons speech, 7 audacious internet users made 44 attempts to break into the servers of Britain’s fiscal watchdog to get an early glimpse of her plans. An hour before Reeves stood up in [...]
OBR warns higher taxes could hit growth ‘by more than expected’ Economics Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been warned that increasing the tax burden could leave the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR)’s key forecasts on shakier ground as it becomes harder to predict how measures hamper growth. In the small print of its Budget report, the fiscal watchdog said increasing the tax take could lead to unforeseen consequences [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Entain, Flutter sound alarm in Reeves’ tax raid aftermath Markets Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog. The dust has settled on the Labour government’s second Autumn Budget and Brits have been left reeling from a £26bn tax raid. Taxes collected as a share of GDP are set to jump to an all-time high in the coming years, according to the Office [...]
OBR accidentally publishes full Budget before Reeves speech November 26, 2025 The government will freeze income tax thresholds, implement a mansion tax and freeze fuel duty according to an unprecedented leak from the government’s fiscal watchdog that revealed its full scorecard for the Budget update before the Chancellor delivered her speech. The Office for Budget Responsibility released its full report on the government’s fiscal plans for [...]
Autumn Budget Live: Wealthy, landlords and pensions hit in £26bn tax raid November 26, 2025 Welcome back to the City AM 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 [...]
Everything we know about Rachel Reeves’ Budget – from mansions to milkshakes November 24, 2025 In the run-up to the mother of all Autumn Budgets to be delivered by Chancellor Rachel Reeves this week, tax rumours have run wild, infecting the minds of businesses and working Brits while adding to the sense of peril that a botched fiscal event could bring. Investors are running scared. Voters fear looming betrayal. Gamblers [...]
Budget chaos isn’t a game, it’s caused real harm November 20, 2025 It’s been the longest run-up to a Budget anyone can remember, it started just after the last Budget, so how much damage has this chaos caused? In her first speech as Chancellor in the first week of July last year, Rachel Reeves used the word stability 8 times. She pledged to “deliver economic stability” and [...]
Productivity growth twitchy in wake-up call for OBR and Reeves November 13, 2025 Productivity levels stuttered in the third quarter of the year, an initial estimate has shown, subverting the Chancellor’s hopes of boosting output in the UK economy. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Thursday morning that quarterly growth in output per hour rates was 0.7 per cent, the highest level since the end of [...]
UK economy barely grows in third quarter November 13, 2025 The UK economy grew at a more sluggish pace than expected in the third quarter of the year amid a pervasive sense of gloom across the country ahead of the Budget. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said there was 0.1 per cent GDP growth between July and September, triggering fears among City analysts that [...]
OBR should focus more on policy growth ‘upsides’ – says Tony Blair think tank November 6, 2025 The Government must force the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to take more account of policy “upsides” when assessing an impact on growth, Tony Blair’s think tank has said. The Treasury watchdog should be required to be bolder in predicting growth to reward more ambitious economic policies, a report by the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) [...]