“Chancellor wallops workers”, declares the Sun, while the Times opts for “high welfare, high tax”, as the front pages deliver their verdicts on the Budget. Contained in what the Daily Telegraph describes as a “red box of broken promises”, the paper says Rachel Reeves delivered a £30bn package of tax increases “largely targeting the middle classes”. The Daily Mail is damning, accusing her of “spiteful raids on strivers – to lavish billions on benefits street”.
The Guardian quotes the chancellor’s words at the despatch box: “I am asking everyone to make a contribution” in its headline. The Daily Mirror’s assessment is that it was a Budget “with a Labour heart”, praising the decision to end what it calls the “cruel” two-child benefit cap. The i Paper and the Financial Times are among the front pages to highlight one of the risks of Ms Reeves’ plan, with both quoting analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies that she has opted for a “spend now, pay later” approach.
“Despite all of the promises”, says the leader in the Daily Express, “Labour did what it always does, put up taxes”. The editorial in the Times strikes a similar tone saying that “finally the veil has been lifted”, to reveal “an unreconstructed throwback to the 1970s” with taxation funding an evermore burdensome welfare state. The Daily Telegraph points out it should all come as “little surprise” that a socialist government is “wedded to taxing, spending and borrowing”.
The Guardian says the Budget “has done its job politically” — and that “whispers” around the prime minister and chancellor’s future “have subsided”. The Daily Mail also suggests Rachel Reeves will “live to fight another day” despite the entire Budget being leaked by the Office for Budget Responsibility. The Financial Times hedges its bets on the chancellor’s future: “this may have been Reeves’ last budget”, the paper says, before speculating that “if all else fails, there should be an opening in the OBR’s IT department”.
