A rare glimpse inside the Resolution Foundation offices on Old Queen’s Street, posted by Sam Coates. Staff were watching the Spring Statement…
Eagle-eyed co-conspirators could spot the Soviet constructivism hanging in the middle of the office there. Enhance, enhance…
The poster reads: “PACE, QUALITY, DISCIPLINE.” Has anyone checked with Torsten Bell how his Five-Year Plan is going?
If your name happens to be Rachel Reeves and even the Resolution Foundation is blasting your Budget, you know you’re in trouble. The think tank which now acts as the boot camp for future high-tax Starmtroopers has taken a dim view of today’s announcements with regards to living standards:
“…Overall, while the forecast was better than expected for the Chancellor it had bad news for households. The outlook for living standards has worsened – with real disposable incomes rising by a paltry 0.5 a year over the Parliament – the second worst since records began in the 1950s. And while many will focus on rising taxes, an ever greater concern for living standards is the projected rise in unemployment.’
Bell ends up upsetting his former colleagues on the most important day of his ministerial career…
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…
Budget week is off to a roaring start as Business and Trade Secretary Peter Kyle apologises for how terrible the speculation and kite-flying has been. Many commentators say it is the worst-ever Budget process…
Kyle told Times Radio:
“I’m not apologising on behalf of the people who are reporting on the speculation because that would be absurd. What I can apologise for is the fact that there has been so much speculation. I understand that it’s a distraction, but it is speculation and the reporting of such.”
The blame game has already erupted over idiotic levies mooted by the Treasury. Resolution Foundation ‘svengalis’ Torsten Bell and Minouche Shafik are under fire in the Times yesterday:
‘“It was those two who were behind the exit tax,” says one of the sources. “Rachel pushed back every time.”
Government insiders complain that the budget process was overly influenced by the Resolution Foundation, via Bell and Shafik. “This is the Resolution Foundation’s budget,” says the source. “This is an experiment in letting those people run riot.”’
When the fallout from the Budget gets bad enough Reeves will have to find someone to take the hit. Ask not for whom the bell tolls…
The Resolution Foundation CEO has issued a sniffy statement complaining about all the kite flying during the Budget process. Except that the Budget process has been run by assorted junior apparatchiks formally with the Resolution Foundation and everyone knows it…
Excessive levels of Budget kite-flying risk exacerbating market uncertainty
Ruth Curtice responds to latest rumours that the Chancellor is no longer planning to increase Income Tax rates in her upcoming Budget, following rumours last week that this would be the centrepiece of… pic.twitter.com/nEzO1Mcysa
— Resolution Foundation (@resfoundation) November 14, 2025
It was never a good idea to let a group of leftist policy wonks prepare the Budget. Naturally they would spend the entire time briefing out every daft leftist tax hike that they had ever worked on. Much of the Budget speculation actually came from new Resolution Foundation proposals – including the Income Tax one – which were aggressively marketed to the papers…
There is a general consensus that this is the worst budget process ever seen. Budget man Torsten Bell has ended up looking particularly silly…
An overnight briefing to the FT confirms that Starmer and Reeves have reversed previous proposals to raise the basic and additional headline rates of Income Tax at the Winter Budget for fear of an uncontrollable backlash from the public and Labour backbenchers. 12 days until the Winter Budget, 10 days after Reeves gave a speech whose purpose was to provide cover for breaking the manifesto…
The paper says one option being explored is to lower thresholds, which Guido predicted last month. 10-year gilt yields have reversed a downward trend for this week and are climbing this morning in reaction to the news. The same is the case with 30-year yields…
Sterling is down 0.3% against the euro and dollar too. The move is a blow to Budget Man Bell and his Resolution Foundation stooges, who have been pushing a 2p hike combined with a 2p cut to Natonal Insurance. Reeves will now have to find a selection of more complex tax rises which will do more to hurt economic activity. Can this government not get anything past its MPs?
Speaking to Sky News off the back of Rachel Reeves’ Air Passenger Duty hike, Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary said:
“Labour is dependent on those Red Wall seats, and yet every move she makes poisons economic growth and damages the UK’s recovery… it’s the Chancellor who stumbles from policy misstep to policy misstep… I think her policy decisions are incredibly stupid.”
