Reeves’ £30bn treasure hunt
Political Fix
Financial Times
4.2 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 31 October 2025
⏱️ 34 minutes
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Summary
With a month to go until the Budget, chancellor Rachel Reeves needs to find a projected £30bn to balance the books. And the forecasts are not in her favour, with the OBR’s bigger than expected productivity downgrade dealing another blow to the Treasury this week. So where will the chancellor find the money – and if Labour have no choice but to break their manifesto tax pledge, where will that leave them with the electorate?
Host George Parker is joined by associate editor and columnist Stephen Bush, chief UK commentator Robert Shrimsley and the FT’s economics editor Sam Fleming.
Follow George: @georgewparker.bsky.social, @GeorgeWParker; Stephen at @stephenkb and Robert @robertshrimsley.bsky.social
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Letting agent admits mistake in Reeves’ rental tax row
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| 0:37.3 | Welcome to political fix from the Financial Times with me, George Parker. |
| 0:45.7 | So the hunt is on for what economists reckon will be at least £30 billion to fill the fiscal gap in time for budget day. |
| 0:51.7 | And the Prime Minister's deliberate evasion, when challenged over a central tenet of Labour's manifesto pledge, |
| 0:55.0 | offered a clue about where the money might be found. |
| 1:02.2 | Last year, Labour promised not to increase income tax, not to increase national insurance, |
| 1:07.3 | and not to increase VAT. Does the Prime Minister still stand by his promises? |
| 1:12.2 | The budget is on the 26th of November, and we will lay out our plans. |
| 1:17.0 | But I can tell the House now that we will build a stronger economy, we will cut NHS waiting list and deliver a better future for our country. |
| 1:20.7 | Well, well, well, Mr. Speaker. |
| 1:22.6 | What a fascinating answer. |
| 1:24.8 | It is not the same answer that I received when I asked exactly the same |
| 1:30.0 | question on the 9th of July. Then the Prime Minister replied with just one word, yes, what's |
| 1:36.7 | changed in the past four months? What's changed? Well, four months have become four weeks and it's |
| 1:42.6 | looking increasingly likely that the government |
| 1:44.9 | will have to renege on its election promise. Meanwhile, Rachel Reeves had other problems on her mind, |
| 1:51.9 | too, with that little disclosure that she unlawfully rented out her family home without a licence. |
| 1:57.7 | And at the time of recording, I should say that Rachel Reeves is still the |
| 2:01.0 | Chancellor of the Exchequer. However, not exactly the attention to detail you'd want from |
... |
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