Chancellor Rachel Reeves has urged Labour MPs to rally behind her “fair and progressive” Budget, warning that while not every measure would be universally popular, the package must be backed in full to deliver the government’s economic agenda.
Addressing a tense meeting of the parliamentary Labour Party after two weeks of leadership speculation, Reeves told MPs that “politics is a team sport” and insisted the Budget would contain policies they could sell confidently to constituents.
“When you look at the distributional analysis you’ll see this is a Labour Budget, a progressive Budget, a Budget I’m proud of,” she said. However, she warned MPs that the measures must be taken “as a package, not a pick and mix”, telling them: “You might like 95% of it and dislike 5%, but we have to deliver this together.”
Reeves assured MPs that tax rises would be “kept to a minimum”, with the Budget focused on cutting the cost of living, reducing NHS waiting lists and lowering the cost of government debt. She argued that bringing down borrowing costs was essential to freeing up money for public services.
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