Budget 2025 live: Rachel Reeves to set out tax and spending changes

8.53am GMT Reeves says budget will involve 'fair and necessary' choices This is how the Treasury summed up the budget in a news release issued last night. It refers to budget measures that have already officially been announced, as well as setting out what Rachel Reeves says are her priorities. [The budget] will include action to cut NHS waiting lists, cut debt and borrowing, and cut the cost of living to secure a strong future for the country, built on fairness and fuelled by growth. Action to keep prescription costs under £10, freeze rail fares for the first time in 30 years and increase the national minimum wage and national living wage by £1,500 and £900 respectively has already been confirmed to put more money in people’s pockets at this budget. Investment for 250 neighbourhood health centres has also been confirmed as part of the chancellor’s commitment to slash NHS waiting lists further and end the postcode lottery of healthcare access. And here is a quote from Reeves. Today I will take the fair and necessary choices to deliver on our promise of change. I will not return Britain back to austerity, nor will I lose control of public spending with reckless borrowing. I will take action to help families with the cost of living … cut hospital waiting lists … cut the national debt. And I will push ahead with the biggest drive for growth in a generation. Investment in roads, rail and energy. Investment in housing, security and defence. Investment in education, skills and training. So together, we can build a fairer, stronger, and more secure Britain. 8.33am GMT Good morning. Budgets fall into two categories – reset ones, and continuity ones. Continuity budgets are more normal (or at least they were until British politics entered near-permanent crisis mode), and the reset ones tend to happen immediately after an election, or when there has been a change of chancellor. Reset budgets are more interesting (but interesting in the way journalists use the word, which is when what they really mean is ‘bad news’). This time last year Rachel Reeves thought the 2025 budget would be a continuity one, but instead it has turned into a colossal reset challenge – and, indeed, an event with the potential to make or break the Keir Starmer premiership. Here is our overnight preview story. Related: UK budget to target cost of living crisis as Reeves battles to keep Labour MPs on side The stakes are particularly high because anyone who has spent time talking to Labour MPs in recent weeks believes there is a chance that, by this time next year, Starmer could be out of office. There are good reasons why that probably won’t happen, but the idea that it might isn’t preposterous. That is one reason why there is so much at stake. We have covered the reasons for this at length over the past few months and there is no need to rehearse them here. As for what to expect in the budget, Richard Partington has a good article here explaining the context. Related: Rachel Reeves’s high-stakes autumn budget in five key charts And, in our First Edition newsletter, Phoebe Weston has a guide as to what to expect. Related: Wednesday briefing: What may be in – and out – of Rachel Reeves’s ‘hokey cokey’ budget I will be focusing exclusively on the budget today (apart from covering PMQs) and Graeme Wearden, who writes the business live blog, will be joining me. As usual, we will be covering the speech minute by minute, bringing you reaction and analysis, and diving into the budget documents to find the bits Reeves did not mention in her speech. Here is the timetable for the day. 9am: Keir Starmer chairs cabinet, where Rachel Reeves will brief colleagues on the budget. Noon: Starmer faces Kemi Badenoch at PMQs. 12.30pm: Reeves delivers the budget. Kemi Badenoch responds on behalf of the Conservative party. 2.30pm: Richard Hughes, chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility, holds a press conference. Afternoon: Starmer and Reeves are due to speak to staff at a hospital where they will take questions on the budget. 4pm: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, holds a post-budget press conference. If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm at the moment), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word. If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. 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