UK's Reeves Says New Budget Includes 'Fair and Necessary' Choices

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Transcript

00:00So finally, Chancellor, you've effectively just broken your promise made after the last budget

00:04not to raise taxes again. Will you now rule out more tax rises, whether directly or by stealth,

00:10this Parliament? So last year, I had to close the black hole in the public finances left by

00:15the Conservatives. And in the budget last year, I lived within the forecast set by the OBR.

00:23They have now changed their forecast around productivity. And they are very clear that's

00:27nothing to do with the policy of this government. But that does mean they forecast lower tax revenue

00:33coming in. And I was always clear that I would never play fast and loose with the public finances

00:37because it's ordinary working people and businesses that pay the price when that happens. So these

00:43are the fair and necessary choices in the circumstances that I face. But what I'm now

00:48determined to do more than ever is to grow our economy so that we have the revenue both to keep

00:53taxes down and also to fund our public services. And that is what this government's plan for growth

00:59is all about. Whether it's pensions reform, planning reform, the changes today to help make Britain

01:05the best place to start up, to scale up and to stay with the changes to stamp duty for shares for

01:12companies newly listing in the UK. I'm determined that we get the growth that our economy has been

01:17sorely lacking for too long. And we do that through the forms that we've set out.