Is Rachel Reeves' black hole ‘made up’?
This Is Why
Sky News
4.0 • 552 Ratings
🗓️ 12 November 2025
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Sir Keir Starmer is standing on the edge of a black hole.
The budget is looming and Downing Street believes some of the prime minister’s own MPs may move against him if it is badly received.
Much of the jitters within Labour swirl around the filling of a black hole in the public finances that may actually be self-imposed and self-inflicted.
Niall is joined by our data and economics editor Ed Conway - who explains everything you need to know about a fiscal black hole that might not actually really exist.
Producer: Tom Gillespie
Editor: Mike Bovill
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Coming up, the black hole. |
| 0:02.3 | None of us can see it, but the politicians keep talking about it. |
| 0:06.0 | With the budget fast approaching, what exactly is the black hole in the nation's finances? |
| 0:11.3 | And can the Chancellor do anything to plug it? |
| 0:14.3 | Before history was written, his name was carved in stone. |
| 0:19.4 | Now witness the legacy of Ramesses the Great. |
| 0:23.8 | 180 priceless treasures direct from the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, in the UK for the first and only time. |
| 0:32.6 | Ramesses and the Pharaoh's Gold, the exhibition, at Battersea Power Station. Book now at Ramesseshees |
| 0:40.2 | the Exhibition.co.uk. Add water to your will. And know that from that single drop, |
| 0:49.8 | life will grow. Communities will flourish. |
| 0:56.5 | A better world will be left. |
| 0:59.9 | By leaving a gift in your will to WaterAid, |
| 1:03.7 | you'll help bring essential clean water to people who need it to change their own lives for generations to come. |
| 1:07.6 | Add WaterAid to your will. |
| 1:09.8 | Search WaterAid Legacy to find out how. |
| 1:17.1 | The government's in a bit of a mess right now, so too the economy, and you might fairly surmise, |
| 1:23.2 | the two are linked. Certainly, it's hard to think we'd be openly speculating on the health secretary |
| 1:28.9 | trying to oust the Prime Minister if the British economy more closely resembled something with a |
| 1:33.9 | heartbeat. Of course, Kier Starrmer, Chancellor Rachel Reeves, even Wes Streeting would say that |
| 1:39.2 | the economy's in the state it's in because of the other lot, the last Tory government. |
| 1:44.1 | That's why there's been one term bandied around by Labour since day one in power. |
| 1:48.0 | And when Rachel Reeves delivers her budget, you can bet the nation's GDP that should be mentioning it at least once. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Sky News, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Sky News and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

