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Viewsroom

Britain’s fiscal ship lost at sea

Viewsroom

Reuters

News

4.458 Ratings

🗓️ 20 November 2025

⏱️ 22 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Finance minister Rachel Reeves, seeking to bridge a 20 bln pound budget gap to meet byzantine rules, is already wavering on raising income taxes and other policies. In this Viewsroom podcast, Breakingviews columnists discuss what to expect and why the economic picture is so glum. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt-out of targeted advertising.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Something unexpected has arrived in Happy Meal.

0:03.2

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Hello Kitty and friends are teaming up for the ultimate collab.

0:08.3

Joining your little ones on a fun-fueled adventure.

0:11.0

Some fun, some food, it's all inside this Happy Meal.

0:16.2

Until the 2nd of February from 11am includes one pre-selected book or toy whilst it's last.

0:20.4

The views expressed on this podcast are those of the participants, not of Rogers News.

0:27.5

If they have to do things that are basically unpopular, you know, in the short term,

0:32.7

can they get it past their own backbenchers, let alone, you know, kind of get re-elected at the end of it.

0:39.3

And so that is a real binding constraint, I think, on the government.

0:42.3

It's perhaps comforting in its way that no matter what else is happening in the world,

0:47.3

tariffs rising or falling, AI-mania, roaring or sputtering markets up or down,

0:52.3

Britain's chief finance minister will forever be under the gun

0:55.6

for contemplating unpopular actions for Byzantine reasons.

1:00.0

Rachel Reeves, the current holder of the office of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, is preparing

1:04.0

to deliver the government's annual budget statement.

1:06.8

She has to navigate a course between a confusing tangle of economic forecasts, fiscal rules,

1:12.3

her own ruling Labor government has made tougher for itself, and election promises to not

1:17.1

raise corporate income taxes. Not surprisingly, flighty investors and wealthy residents are

1:22.7

nervously awaiting what she comes up with. How she will dodge a 20 billion pound gap between projections

1:29.4

and policy and what it all means for the UK economy is the subject of this week's

1:33.6

views room. Welcome to the Views Room, the weekly podcast from Reuters Breaking Views

1:39.5

that dives into the naughtiest topics in economics and corporate finance. I'm Jonathan Guilford,

...

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