It isn’t, at all, how Rachel Reeves will have wanted it to go. In an absolutely extraordinary turn of events, we know about the measures in the Budget before the Chancellor has delivered it. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR)’s forecasting document was released in error more than 40 minutes before she was due to get to her feet in the Commons.
Broadcasters pulled away from Prime Minister’s Questions as their presenters frantically flicked through the forecasting document to find the key measures: including a freeze on income tax thresholds, a mansion tax and a gambling levy, among others, amounting to the highest tax rates ever. That is balanced against some intended good-news measures, such as scrapping the two-child benefit cap. We’ll have more for you as we digest the document and Reeves delivers her speech.
Reeves’s face fell as Kemi Badenoch taunted her about the leak in the chamber. The OBR has issued an apology, describing it as a “technical error” and saying it will launch an inquiry into how it happened. Some will wonder if the leak was deliberate, a sign of deteriorating relations between government and its forecaster, though there is no suggestion so far that that is the case.
This unfortunate incident is the culmination of a very messy lead-up to the Budget, after months of speculation about the measures that would be included and an embarrassing leak that the government had U-turned on its plans to increase income taxes.
[Further reading: The Budget of last resort]
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