Chancellor gives Downing Street speech as markets open and is expected to be ‘candid’ about choices to fill fiscal gap
Good morning. David Cameron is credited with popularising the term “pitch rolling” in Westminster, to describe the process whereby politicians prepare the public for difficult announcements by shaping the argument in advance. It is a metaphor with connotations of a gentle game of cricket, and pleasant summer afternoons.
Today Rachel Reeves is engaged in a classic piece of “pitch rolling”. But her task is more daunting. She won’t be flattening the odd bump; she has to shift some colossal PR obstacles, which is more a task for a fleet of JCB diggers.
That is because, when she delivers the budget three weeks tomorrow, she will have to fill fiscal gap reportedly as high as £30bn. That means tax rises, which are never an easy sell. But it also means going back on the promise she made to the CBI last year when she said she would not need to raise taxes again on the scale she did in autumn 2024. And there seems to be a very real chance that she will also decide to raise income tax, which would be a direct breach of a promise Labour made in its election manifesto.
Reeves is giving what is billed an important speech at 8.10am. As Jessica Elgot and Pippa Crerar report in their preview story, Reeves will “lay the groundwork for a tax-raising budget that could break Labour’s election promise on income tax, in a major speech in which she will be “candid” about the tough choices ahead”.
