Rachel Reeves had such a private bust-up with Sadiq Khan she actually booted him out of her office, according to the New Statesman. Ailbhe Rea reports:
“In private, she had heated, bitter disagreements with cabinet colleagues over squeezed budgets for their departments. “Get out of my office,” she told the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, as he tried to negotiate more funding for the capital, according to several people familiar with the incident. I’m told she cut short their scheduled meeting before the second half could begin.”
Khan is nonetheless walking away from this Budget with his prized Tourist Tax. Imagine if Reeves had caved even further…
There has been some confusion over what Budget Man Torsten Bell actually has in his taxpayer-funded office. Guido can bring co-conspirators the sobering details…
Guido’s FOI Unit has retrieved Bell’s IPSA receipts from this year. In April Torsten decided to adorn his office with chairs, cupboards, cutlery, plates, mugs, trays, and a £3 box – all from IKEA. On his spending splurge at the Swedish furniture retailer Bell bought two Ekero armchairs in yellow for £358, a cabinet with smooth sliding doors for £179, a £49 set of sand-glazed plates, and an £85 drawer unit. In total Bell ended up spending £1,123.70 of taxpayer cash at IKEA. He may be interested to know that IKEA’s founder Ingvar Kamprad left Sweden in the 70s to avoid paying eye-watering tax rates including a newly-introduced wealth tax…
The taxpayer coughed up £45 for those items to be brought over by “express truck delivery” and another £94.76 on assembly. Aren’t you meant to assemble them yourself…
In addition Bell’s office is probably scattered with 200 magnetic business cards bought for £76 and a £199 Henry cordless vacuum to hoover them up. In case it gets too sweaty coming up with new taxes Torsten had the taxpayer fund a £350 Dyson Cool AM07 Tower Fan…
In July the Treasury minister also decided he needed to spend £262.50 on the Adobe Premiere Pro suite which gives you access to photoshop and advanced video editing. Can’t polish a…
Fresh Techne polling shows Labour’s nanny-state sin taxes are sending voters towards Reform. All as Reeves gears up to rake in milkshake tax revenue…
Of 1,000 adults surveyed, 32% said they would vote for Reform. But when asked to factor in the planned sin-tax hikes, that figure jumped to 40%. A hefty 19% of voters say the hikes would make them switch parties altogether. Earlier this month, Nigel Farage blasted the “astonishing overreach” of sugar and tobacco taxes. Not so sweet for Reeves…
Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury Dan Tomlinson loves a Greggs Caramel Custard Doughnut, according to his pre-Budget social media fluff. Guido can attest to its tastiness…
Watch till the end…🍩 pic.twitter.com/uoJLtRI24J
— The Labour Party (@UKLabour) November 25, 2025
He calls it “very good value“. Well, Greggs regulars will know the cost of that doughnut has soared from £1 to £1.60 in just a year. A 60% price increase under Labour. Dan glazed over that one…
Borrowing costs have already jumped this morning, with 10-year gilt yields climbing from 4.49% to 4.53%. Reeves hasn’t even left Number 11 yet…
Meanwhile Downing Street fixer Darren Jones was on the airwaves this morning to defend the upcoming Binfire. He insisted on Sky News that it wasn’t about saving Starmer’s job:
“No, no. We’ve got another three years, probably another three Budgets to go until the 2029 election. This is a Budget dealing with the public’s concerns and the world as we find it. The Chancellor’s made no secret of the fact this is a challenging Budget because of what’s going on, whether it’s on the cost of government debt or changing global tariffs and trade and the economy and those types of issues.”
A reminder: the ‘phase 2’ reshuffle was all about getting Number 10’s fingerprints on this Budget…
Speaking at his speech on how to achieve “progressive capitalism” Wes Streeting fired a dig and Andy Burnham:
“Bond markets are not bond villains and fiscal rules matter.”