Rachel Reeves dodges question on her future after Budget unveiled

Rachel Reeves dodges question on her future after Budget unveiledSource: Reuters

Transcript

00:00A lot of the tax rises that you've, more than half of the income to the Treasury from the tax rises you've announced today,

00:06actually takes effect, sort of comes in after the next general election in sort of 2030, 2031.

00:12Do you think it's credible to suggest that this will definitely happen?

00:15And given things are so volatile in politics, will you still be Chancellor then?

00:19I don't think anything comes in that late, actually.

00:23So the freezes are 28, 29 onwards.

00:28The council tax surcharge comes in in a couple of years' time, as does the other changes.

00:34So these are all coming in within this Parliament.

00:37When you're making tax reform, it's often not possible to change those rates overnight.

00:43And, of course, the thresholds are towards the end of the Parliament because the Tories already froze them.

00:49But we're also making savings right now through getting rid of things like police and crime commissioners,

00:55reducing the cost of local government with fewer councillors, as well as selling land that the government no longer has a need for.

01:03So there are savings we're making right now, as well as asking public services to make efficiency savings worth a further 0.5% from 28, 29.

01:15So, you know, these are – and what you see, actually, in the forecast is the deficit coming down every single year

01:23because I think it is important to show that we are consolidating.

01:28We're not going to be spending more than we can afford.

01:30And the IMF, I believe, have confirmed that we have the fastest rate of consolidation of our public finances as of any country in the G7.