How to do a spending review
Coffee House Shots
The Spectator
4.4 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 28 May 2025
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Labour’s spending review is expected on the 11th of June, when we will find out which government departments face cuts and which costs have been ringfenced. This can set the tone for politics for months to come as it gives a clue to which priorities matter most – especially in times of fiscal restraint – and which ministers are up, and which are down. But how is a spending review conducted? How does His Majesty’s Treasury balance the negotiations with those competing for its attention? And, following the leaked Angela Rayner memo, do we know which economic arguments are winning out?
James Nation, formerly a SpAd at the Treasury, and then Number 10, for Rishi Sunak – now an MD at Forefront Advisers – joins James Heale to take us through the process, the personalities and the politics behind a spending review. Plus – a year on, was Rishi Sunak proven right?
Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
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Transcript
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| 0:50.7 | Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots. I'm James Heel and I'm joined today by James Nation, |
| 0:55.6 | who is now managing director of forefront advisors but previously worked in the Treasury and then |
| 0:59.8 | number 10 under Rishi Sunak. James, thank you for joining me today. Thanks so much, James. Thank you for |
| 1:04.7 | having me. Good to be here. So obviously the spending review is dominating all the discussions in Whitehall |
| 1:09.5 | over the next sort of three, |
| 1:11.2 | four weeks or so. Just tell us what we're going through the mind of ministers right now, |
| 1:15.7 | as they're making their case to the Treasury ahead of June 11th, we're expecting to have the results |
| 1:19.5 | of that. Absolutely. Well, look, the first thing to say is that the spending review will have been |
| 1:24.0 | an all-consuming event across Whitehall for quite some time now. |
| 1:28.3 | So you're right that we're getting towards the back end of the negotiations, |
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