Chancellor expected to make further welfare cuts in Spring statement
Rachel Reeves says her statement will deliver growth and security for the UK
Rachel Reeves delivers her spring budget statement today, she's expected to say she needs to go "further and faster to kickstart growth" as she scrambles for savings to help balance the nation's books without hiking taxes.
The Chancellor will be forced to take action to stick to her rule of meeting day-to-day spending through tax receipts, rather than extra borrowing, in response to gloomy forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility.
Cuts to welfare
The OBR is said to have warned that cuts to welfare set out in recent weeks have fallen short of the £5 billion savings ministers expected, according to media reports, leaving the Chancellor with a £1.6 billion hole likely to be filled with further cuts.
It's now expected universal credit incapacity benefits for new claimants will be frozen until 2030.
Alongside the statement, the Government will release an impact assessment indicating how many people will be hit by previously announced plans to cut the welfare bill.
A group of public health experts writing in the British Medical Journal warned people will die as a result of the cuts to personal independence payments and the sickness elements of universal credit.
Professor Gerry McCartney, from the University of Glasgow, said: “There is now substantial evidence that cuts to social security since 2010 have fundamentally harmed the health of the UK population.
“Implementing yet more cuts will therefore result in more premature deaths. It is vital that the UK Government understands this evidence and takes a different policy approach.”
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has insisted the welfare system is “morally indefensible” and needs reform to help those who can work into jobs.
The Government has pledged to invest an additional £1 billion-a-year by 2029/2030 to help support people into work including through one-to-one help and said it will protect disabled people who will never be able to work by scrapping the need for them to have benefits reassessments.
More money for defence
Rachel Reeves is expected to tell MPs later that a “more insecure world” requires a greater focus on national security, with a promise to increase defence spending by £2.2 billion from April as part of the previously announced plan for the biggest boost in military funding since the Cold War.
She will say: “Our task is to secure Britain’s future in a world that is changing before our eyes.
“The job of a responsible government is not simply to watch this change.
“This moment demands an active government stepping up to secure Britain’s future. A government on the side of working people.
“To grasp the opportunities that we now have and help Britain reach its full potential, we need to go further and faster to kickstart growth, protect national security and make people better off through our plan for change.”
The new defence funding will be spent on refurbishing military homes, upgrading infrastructure at Portsmouth Naval base and on advanced technologies, including a guaranteed investment to fit Royal Navy ships with Directed Energy Weapons by 2027. These weapons can hit a £1 coin from 1km away and take down drones at a distance of 5km.
Chancellor says Labour have 'restored stability to the public finances'
In today's Spring statement Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to say
“This government was elected to change our country.
“To provide security for working people. And deliver a decade of national renewal.
“That work of change began in July – and I am proud of what we have delivered in just nine months.
“Restoring stability to our public finances; giving the Bank of England the foundation to cut interest rates three times since the General Election; rebuilding our public services with record investment in our NHS and bringing down waiting lists for 5 months in a row; and increasing the National Living Wage to give 3 million people a pay rise from next week."
Tory Shadow Minister Alex Burghart had a very different point of view, describing today's statement as a sticking plaster: