Published: Monday, September 29, 2025 · 1:01 PM | Updated: Monday, September 29, 2025 · 1:01 PM
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🗝️ Key Points
- Speculation is ramping up as to what chancellor Rachel Reeves could announce in the autumn budget, to help strengthen the UK's public finances.
- Reeves refused to rule out some tax rises were form part of it in an interview with the BBC on Monday, ahead of her speech at the Labour party conference.
- The Labour party promised in its manifesto not to raise taxes on "working people", with a pledge not to increase rates of income tax, national insurance or value-added tax (VAT).
Speculation is ramping up as to what chancellor Rachel Reeves could announce in the autumn budget, to help strengthen the UK’s public finances.
Reeves refused to rule out some tax rises were form part of it in an interview with the BBC on Monday, ahead of her speech at the Labour party conference. The Labour party promised in its manifesto not to raise taxes on “working people”, with a pledge not to increase rates of income tax, national insurance or value-added tax (VAT).
Following her first autumn budget last year, in which the chancellor announced £40bn of tax rises, Reeves told the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) that she would not be “coming back with more borrowing or more taxes”.
However, in an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday she said: “Everyone can see in the last year the world has changed and we’re not immune to that change.”
When asked whether she could guarantee that she would not extend the freeze on income tax thresholds, in another interview, with BBC Breakfast, Reeves said: “I’m not going to be able to do that.”
Read more: Demand for UK homes priced over £500,000 falls amid budget speculation
Later, in her Labour party conference speech, Reeves said: “In the months ahead, we will face further tests, with the choices to come made all the harder by harsh global headwinds and the long-term damage done to our economy, which is becoming ever clearer.
“Our first year in power was about fixing the foundations. Our second must be about building a renewed economy for a renewed Britain.”
Reeves has repeatedly said she is committed to sticking to her self-imposed fiscal rules, which include not borrowing to fund day-to-day public spending by the end of this parliament, as well as aiming to get debt falling as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) in the same time frame.
Meanwhile, the government was forced to U-turn on proposed cuts to welfare benefits in June, following pressure from within the Labour party. At the same time, work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden told the BBC last week that reform of the welfare system “must happen”, partly to help address the rising cost of benefits.
Given the projected shortfall in public finances, what do you think Rachel Reeves should do in the autumn budget to help shore up the UK’s public finances? Vote in the poll below.
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