Kemi must’ve had at least two bowls of Weetabix this morning. The advantage of having the whole Budget land in your lap before the Chancellor has even stood up at the despatch box…
The whole thing leaked over half an hour ago. Read the full details here.
Five days from the Winter Budget, and fresh reports today show the economy is not exactly ‘going for growth’ under Labour. S&P Global’s latest PMI shows there’s been yet another slowdown in private sector activity this month, with services activity hitting a 7-month low, and manufacturing output dropping to a 2-month low. Chris Williamson at S&P Global added: “Economic growth has stalled, job losses have accelerated, and business confidence has deteriorated”…
At the same time, the GfK Consumer Confidence Barometer shows that all measures of consumer confidence fell in November, and latest ONS figures reveal that retail sales unexpectedly fell 1.1% in October. This morning Reeves woke up to find that she had borrowed £3 billion more in October than the OBR forecast. And, by the way Reeves, a woman wrote this story…
YouGov has just dropped a poll on Britons’ views on the economy ahead of the Winter Budget. Quite literally no one thinks it’s in a very good state under Labour…
A whopping 77% say the government is doing a bad job at managing the economy, while only 4% say the economy is in a fairly good state, and 0% say it’s in a ‘very good’ state. The vast majority (64%) blame Labour’s policies, including 24% of current Labour voters. Meanwhile, just 45% of Brits think freezing income tax thresholds is the “right thing to do”. Some grim reading for the Chancer of the Exchequer…
Government borrowing costs have risen at the fastest pace since July after the shambolic budget briefings. 10-year gilt yields are now 4.570% – the highest since August. The Winter Budget just became much more difficult for Reeves to manage…
Downing Street has insisted that Reeves’ ‘tax-rises-are-coming’ speech ten days ago still stands after U-turning on income tax rises. At the Lobby briefing of political journalists, Starmer’s spokesman said:
“She was very clear about the challenges the country faces and her priorities in addressing those challenges. All of that still stands.”
Meanwhile 10-year gilt yields surpassed this morning’s peak of 4.556% to 4.559% at noon. Prepare for a painful ‘smorgasbord’ of tax hikes this winter…
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.”
