Budget 2024: Rachel Reeves announces £40bn worth of tax rises to fix 'broken' public services

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Rachel Reeves has announced tax rises worth £40bn to repair Britain's "broken" public services.

The Labour Chancellor tore into the Conservatives today in her first Budget statement and accused the previous UK government of harming the NHS through years of austerity.

Reeves told MPs: "The party opposite failed our country. Their austerity broke our National Health Service. Their Brexit deal harmed British businesses. And their mini-Budget left families paying the price with higher mortgages."

In the first Labour budget since 2010 – and the first ever delivered by a woman – the Chancellor pledged to “invest, invest, invest”.

But she said the “black hole” left by the Conservatives required tens of billions of additional taxes.

Reeves confirmed she would not increase national insurance, VAT or income tax for working people.

And she said it would be the “wrong choice” to increase fuel duty next year, saying she would continue the freeze and maintain the temporary 5p cut for another year.

Reeves claimed the scale of the public spending problems she inherited were worse than previously thought.

She said the £22 billion “black hole” left by the Tories in this year’s finances showed they “hid the reality of their public spending plans”, with problems recurring in future years.

Ms Reeves also promised to set aside £11.8 billion to compensate those affected by the infected blood scandal and £1.8 billion to compensate victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal.

The Chancellor said: “Together, the black hole in our public finances this year, which recurs every year, the compensation payments which they did not fund and their failure to assess the scale of the challenges facing our public services means this Budget raises taxes by £40 billion.

“Any Chancellor standing here today would face this reality. And any responsible Chancellor would take action.

“That is why today, I am restoring stability to our public finances and rebuilding our public services.”

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