To be fair: No prime minister or chancellor generally chats about the budget in public until it’s been delivered. But Reeves set a new precedent earlier this month by giving a “scene setter” speech in Downing Street, which rolled the pitch for raising income tax in all but name.
Pressing the point: “We’ve read all about it in the papers,” Badenoch cried, saying this fall’s budget was the first “to unravel before it’s even been delivered.” The Tory leader interrogated Starmer on whether the freeze on income tax thresholds (a way of dragging people into higher tax bands and getting more revenue) would be extended.
Cross the bingo card: The PM, eager to avoid any premature rabbits out of the hat, reiterated that the budget was next week but promised “what we won’t do is inflict a borrowing spree like Liz Truss.” Britain’s shortest-lived occupant in No. 10 continues to live in her successor but one’s head rent-free.
Guessing game: Aware, er, no answer was forthcoming on the freeze, Badenoch dared to have another go. The PM was having none of that, stating she “speculates and distorts” and wished to go “back to the same failed experiment.” Badenoch threw the charge back at him, arguing, “the only people who have been speculating are his government every day for the last three months.” That’s a lucky escape for the political obsessives of all stripes across the land.
Biting words: The Tory leader had one last go at getting a response on thresholds, flagging that Reeves pledged to unfreeze them in the Commons. “If she breaks such a clear promise, how can the public trust a word she says next week?” Starmer stepped aside from the specific charge, throwing back Badenoch’s time as a Treasury minister “during the worst decline in living standards on record.”
Helpful backbench intervention of the week: Normanton and Hemsworth MP Jon Trickett lambasted the last government’s record on inequality and austerity, pleading with the PM to eliminate economic injustice in the budget. Starmer, pleased to receive an easy question from the often Labour rebel, happily obliged.
Totally unscientific scores on the doors: Starmer 6/10. Badenoch 6/10. The exchanges were an underwhelming pre-budget joust ahead of the real action next week. The Tory leader rightly pointed out the carnage around the non-income tax rise and all but penciled in a frozen threshold extension. Starmer, naturally, kept her requests on ice and rehashed anti-Tory talking points. Whatever anyone thinks of the budget’s contents, we’ll all be glad when it’s out in the open.