1 hour ago Spring statement 2025 live: OBR slashes economic growth forecast as 3m families to be hit by welfare cuts

Quarter of a million people, including 50,000 children, pushed into poverty by end of decade due to welfare reforms, according to government’s own impact assessment

Economics

2 h. ago Spring statement 2025 live: Reeves hit by economic growth downturn as she unveils budget and welfare cuts

Quarter of a million people, including 50,000 children, pushed into poverty by end of decade due to welfare reforms, according to government’s own impact assessment

Economics

2 h. ago Donald Trump's trade tariffs plan could smash Rachel Reeves' hopes of a UK economic recovery as experts warn trade war would cut growth and raise inflation

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) warned that if the protectionist US plan developed into a full-blown global trade war it could reduce UK GDP by a full 1 per cent on its own.

Economics

2 h. ago Read the Chancellor's Spring Statement in full: From welfare cuts to defence spending and national living wage

All 50 pages of the spring statement were issued as a PDF by the Treasury today after the Chancellor blamed 'increased global uncertainty' as the budget watchdog slashed its economic growth forecast.

Economics

3 h. ago Spring statement live: Reeves hit by economic growth downturn as she unveils £14bn budget and welfare cuts

The chancellor is delivering her spring statement in the Commons amid pressure from MPs to get the economy growing

Economics

3 h. ago Spring statement: Reeves blames ‘global uncertainty’ for deeper spending cuts

Chancellor says tougher measures required to plug fiscal hole after Treasury watchdog halves 2025 growth forecastSpring statement: key pointsAnalysis: Reeves does reasonable job of justifying fiscal prudence but welfare cuts cast shadowPolitics live – updatesRachel Reeves blamed “global uncertainty” as she announced swingeing cuts to welfare and other public spending designed to plug a fiscal hole caused by soaring borrowing costs and sluggish economic growth.The chancellor told the Commons that the UK’s growth forecast for this year had been halved from 2% to 1% by the Treasury watchdog, which concluded that the chancellor would have missed her goal of balancing the books if she did not act. Continue reading...

Politics

3 h. ago So much for growth, growth, growth! Rachel Reeves admits forecast for economy HALVED with inflation higher

Chancellor Rachel Reeves stressed the grim realities facing the country as she delivered her Spring Statement to the Commons, arguing the 'world has changed'.

Economics

3 h. ago Economic growth forecast halved as Reeves blames global instability

Chancellor Rachel Reeves was forced to set out further cuts in public spending after the Office for Budget Responsibility’s verdict.

Economics

4 h. ago Rachel Reeves sets out cuts to balance the books after budget watchdog’s verdict

The Chancellor updated MPs on the nation’s finances.

Economics

7 h. ago Tackling climate crisis will increase economic growth, OECD research finds

Third of global GDP could be lost this century if climate crisis runs unchecked, says reportTaking strong action to tackle the climate crisis will increase countries’ economic growth, rather than damage their finances as critics of net zero policies have claimed, research from the world’s economic watchdog has found.Setting ambitious targets on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, and setting out the policies to achieve them, would result in a net gain to global GDP by the end of the next decade, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in a joint report with the UN Development Programme. Continue reading...

Economics

8 h. ago Reeves poised to make further welfare cuts as budget watchdog gives its verdict

Chancellor Rachel Reeves will acknowledge she needs to go ‘further and faster to kickstart growth’ in her spring statement .

Economics

10 h. ago Good morning Britain – prepare to be told yet again that decline is all you deserve | Owen Jones

It’s Groundhog Day: the party may change but even under Labour, the script remains stubbornly the sameIt is time to resuscitate Margaret Thatcher’s catchphrase: “There is no alternative.” With a twist, of course. Back then, “Tina” was deployed in favour of an economic model that gave us badly distributed low growth, shambolic rip-off privatised utilities, a housing crisis and social insecurity. It is now devastatingly clear that there is no alternative to discarding this failed experiment.Yet this week, our supposedly Labour chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will take a scalpel to departmental budgets already devastated by 15 years of austerity. Our government has robbed most pensioners of the winter fuel payment, and announced £5bn worth of cuts to disability benefits, which strip support from citizens unable to independently clothe themselves, or who need an aide to use the toilet. By the time of the next election, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, all households will have suf...

Politics

16 h. ago Reeves to address grim economic outlook as she faces budget watchdog’s verdict

Fiscal watchdog the OBR is reported to have warned that welfare cuts will not save ministers the £5 billion they had expected.

Economics

18 h. ago Reeves admits “further and faster” action is needed to kickstart growth

Before the statement, the Office for Budget Responsibility will publish its forecast on the UK economy, which is widely expected to slash its forecast for economic growth

Politics

18 h. ago Reeves gets budget watchdog’s verdict as she hunts for elusive economic growth

Chancellor Rachel Reeves will set out how she will balance the books against a backdrop of economic stagnation.

Economics

29 h. ago Globalisation may have run its course in current form, says HSBC chair

Trade tensions in era of Trump tariffs create serious potential risk to global growth, warns Sir Mark TuckerGlobalisation “may have now run its course” in its current form, according to the chair of HSBC, as geopolitical tensions and US tariffs threaten to upend existing global trade.Speaking at the bank’s global investment summit in Hong Kong on Tuesday, Sir Mark Tucker warned that trade tensions created uncertainty that posed a “serious potential risk to global growth”, in remarks reported by the Financial Times. He predicted stronger economic ties would develop between regional groups and trade blocs. Continue reading...

Society

30 h. ago Spring Statement: Rachel Reeves needs AI to 'move needle' on economic growth, says Bank of England governor

The UK’s economy has been flatlining

Economics

54 h. ago DOMINIC LAWSON: I'm glad Rachel Reeves took down my father Nigel's portrait

Spring is the season of growth. But not if you are Rachel Reeves, whose Spring Statement on Wednesday is to be a painful reckoning with the inevitable effects of her first Budget last October.

Politics

56 h. ago Fintech can be a powerhouse helping to drive the UK's economic growth

The UK attracted $3.6 billion in fintech investment in 2024 and now accounts for over 11% of global investment in the sector

Economics

63 h. ago DOMINIC LAWSON: I'm glad Rachel Reeves took down my father Nigel's portrait

Spring is the season of growth. But not if you are Rachel Reeves, whose Spring Statement on Wednesday is to be a painful reckoning with the inevitable effects of her first Budget last October.

Politics