Rachel Reeves is delivering her spending update – here are the main points
Politics live: Reeves delivers spending review
The chancellor talks up the government’s economic record and the decisions made at the budget. She makes the obligatory mention of the Conservatives’ “14 years of mismanagement and decline” and the supposed £22bn fiscal hole. “We are renewing Britain,” she says – while accepting that many Britons “have yet to feel it”. This spending review will change it, she says.
Reeves says the review is “time for parties opposite to make their choices”, saying the spending and investment she will unveil was only possible because of tax choices in the autumn budget and the revised fiscal rules, which the Conservatives opposed. They must make “an honest choice” on whether to support the extra money, she says.
Reeves says overall departmental spending will rise by 2.3% a year in real terms, contrasting her “Labour choices” with what she calls the destructive legacy of austerity. That is the overall figure, but some departments will still very much feel a squeeze, even with what she says is an extra £190bn in day to day spending over the parliament.
