The UK's budget gets the IMF's seal of approval.

Hello, this is the Marketplace Morning Report,

and we're live from the BBC World Service.

I'm Leanna Byrne. Good morning.

Here in the UK, the government has unveiled its first budget

since the Labour Party got back in power, its first in 14 years.

The measures amount to a $50 billion tax hike to fund public services with a big focus on taxing businesses and high earners.

But there was a surprise extension to a tax cut on gas and diesel.

The International Monetary Fund backed the budget, calling it sustainable.

The BBC's Theo Leggett has been combing through the details.

Hello.

Good morning. Theo, what does this budget reveal about Labour's priorities? Now, they're actually back in power for the first time since 2010.

Well, Leanna, as you know, the UK budget is always a bit of political theatre. But it is also very important for the government to set out its economic priorities.

And what Labour has spent weeks doing really is reining in expectations, making sure that

everybody knew this was a budget that they said was about fixing the foundations of the economy,

sorting out problems and that it would involve a big increase in taxes.

Talk to me about those increases in taxes. What are the highlights?

The government put itself in a little bit of a corner when it was campaigning by saying that

it wouldn't increase paycheck taxes on working people. So the only really real alternative

was to tax businesses. The government

has increased national insurance contributions tax on employers, increasing it by 1.2 percentage

points. And so putting the burden of tax increases on them. But this is a payroll tax in a sense.

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