Rachel Reeves Has Pretty Much Confirmed That Taxes Will Go Up In The Budget

Rachel Reeves has all-but confirmed that taxes and government borrowing will go up in the Budget.

The chancellor – who will make a keynote speech to the Labour conference in Liverpool later today – said “in the last year the world has changed” as she refused to repeat her previous pledge not to increase taxes again.

Reeves will deliver her Budget on November 26, a year on from her first one, when she increased taxes by £40 billion.

At the time, she said that was necessary to plug a £22bn “black hole” left by the Tories.

Speaking to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) shortly after it, Reeves pledged not to put up taxes for the rest of the parliament.

On Radio 4′s Today programme this morning, presenter Nick Robinson asked her: “Could you repeat the statement you made to the CBI: ‘I’m really clear, I’m not coming back with more borrowing or more taxes’?”

Reeves said: “Well, look, everyone can see that in the last year the world has changed and we’re not immune to that change, whether it is wars in Europe and the Middle East, whether it’s increased barriers to trade because of tariffs coming from the United States, whether it is the global cost of borrowing. We’re not immune to any of those things.”

Robinson told her: “We understand that chancellors have to choose their words carefully but translating, that means taxes are going up, you’ve just confirmed that.”

Her comments were leapt on by the Tories, who said on X: “Rachel Reeves has strangled growth and put people out of work with her tax hikes. Now she’s plotting new ways to take more of your money – having promised not to. Tax rises are coming.”