Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, holds the traditional red ministerial box containing her budget speech outside No 11 Downing Street, before departing to the House of Commons to deliver the budget in London, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024.Photo by Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

New U.K. Labour government's first budget sees rise in taxes, spending and borrowing

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves also changed the U.K.'s debt rules, allowing the government to borrow more to 'invest, invest, invest,' she said

31 Oct 2024, 02:11 by Pan Pylas and Jill Lawless · National Post

LONDON — British Treasury chief Rachel Reeves raised taxes Wednesday by around 40 billion pounds (US$52 billion) to plug a hole she claims to have identified in the public finances and fund the U.K.’s cash-starved public services, in a beefy budget that could set the political tone for years to come.

In the Labour Party’s first budget since regaining power after 14 years in July, Reeves also changed the U.K.’s debt rules — a move that will allow the government to borrow more to, as she explained, “invest, invest, invest,” but which opposition figures described as a “fiddling of the books.”