Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are about to feel the heat from Labour backbenchers. As the Spring Statement approaches, a storm is brewing over the expected welfare cuts.
The Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) is expected to slash growth projections for 2025, dropping from 2% to just 1%. Meanwhile, Rachel Reeves’ £10bn surplus has evaporated, leaving her with a £4bn deficit.
The big question is: who will pay the price? It looks like the poorest in society will bear the brunt of it.
The Spring Statement timetable
Here’s what the day will look like:
- 12:00pm: Keir Starmer faces Kemi Badenoch at PMQs.
- 12:30pm: Rachel Reeves delivers her Spring Statement.
- 2:30pm: Richard Hughes, Chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility, holds a press conference.
- 4:15pm: Rachel Reeves holds her own press conference.
Caroline Lucas speaks out
Caroline Lucas isn’t holding back. She’s calling out Reeves for her “rigid adherence to arbitrary fiscal rules” and refusal to consider wealth taxes. In a sharp response to the expected cuts, Lucas wrote:
“Rachel Reeves is right that the world has changed – so why won’t she change her strategy to reflect it? Rigid adherence to arbitrary fiscal rules & refusing wealth taxes is a political choice that’s causing untold pain as well as laying out the welcome mat for populist Reform UK.”
She also added: ““The world has changed” says Chancellor on #bbclaurak. Yes it has – so why stick to outdated counterproductive austerity agenda & arbitrary fiscal rules? You can’t cut your way to growth. Taxes on extreme wealth of super rich would be far fairer & more effective than more cuts.”
But perhaps these two messages from Pilues Media say it even better?
They write: “The problem with Britain is that people earning £5,000 per hour have convinced people earning £15 per hour that people earning £9.17 per hour are the problem.”
And this is a great point.
“If cutting more benefits, starving the poor and having more austerity was the solution, the economy would already be booming. We’ve been doing it for 15 years and all its done is make everything worse. Only a total idiot would think more austerity is the solution to austerity.”
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