A fiery Prime Minister’s Questions session erupted in Westminster as UK Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch accused Chancellor Rachel Reeves of delivering the “most chaotic budget ever,” triggering one of the most heated exchanges of the session. Reeves pushed back, defending her economic framework while Labour leader Keir Starmer attempted to regain control of the debate amid mounting criticism from Conservative MPs.
The confrontation highlighted growing tensions over fiscal strategy, spending priorities, and claims of instability surrounding the government’s financial roadmap.
The sharp back-and-forth underscored the political turbulence facing Starmer’s administration as economic pressures intensify and opposition leaders seize on what they describe as mixed signals from the Treasury.
#PMQs #KemiBadenoch #RachelReeves #KeirStarmer #ChaoticBudget #UKPolitics #HouseOfCommons #Westminster #BudgetDebate #EconomicPolicy #UKEconomy #ParliamentLive #PoliticalClash #Treasury
The confrontation highlighted growing tensions over fiscal strategy, spending priorities, and claims of instability surrounding the government’s financial roadmap.
The sharp back-and-forth underscored the political turbulence facing Starmer’s administration as economic pressures intensify and opposition leaders seize on what they describe as mixed signals from the Treasury.
#PMQs #KemiBadenoch #RachelReeves #KeirStarmer #ChaoticBudget #UKPolitics #HouseOfCommons #Westminster #BudgetDebate #EconomicPolicy #UKEconomy #ParliamentLive #PoliticalClash #Treasury
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NewsTranscript
00:00Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. And may I congratulate the right honourable
00:09lady on delivering her second budget. I hope she enjoyed it because it really
00:15should be her last. What a total humiliation, a total humiliation.
00:23Can colleagues who are exiting the chamber do so swiftly, so we can focus on the leader
00:31of the opposition. Swiftly exit, quietly. Right, leader of the opposition.
00:40It's a total humiliation Madam Deputy Speaker. Last year she put up taxes by £40 billion,
00:47the biggest tax rate in British history. She promised that she wouldn't be back for more.
00:52She swore it was a one-off. She told everyone that from now on it would be stability and
00:57she would pay for everything with growth. Today she has broken every single one of those policies.
01:05If she had any decency she would resign. At the last budget she said she was proud to
01:14be the country's first ever female Chancellor. After this budget she will go down as the country's
01:20worst ever Chancellor.
01:22Order! Order! Order! And the Chief Whip in particular knows that we don't allow clapping in the chamber.
01:38Today she has announced a new tax rate of £26 billion. They are all cheering. Household income is down.
01:54Spending policies in this budget increase borrowing in every year. That smorgasbord of misery we just heard from her can be summed up in one sentence. Labour are hiking taxes to pay for welfare.
02:06This is a budget for benefit Street, Madam Deputy Speaker, paid for by working people. This budget increases benefits for 560,000 families by an average of £5,000. They are hiking taxes on workers, pensioners and savers to pay for handouts to keep their backbenchers quiet.
02:28These are the same backbenchers, Madam Deputy Speaker, who cheered last year when she taxed jobs and left more than 100,000 people without an income. They cheered because they didn't understand the consequences of what they were doing and they still don't.
02:50Madam Deputy Speaker, it's not been an easy time for the Chancellor. No one liked seeing her sitting on those benches as it dawned on her that her own backbenchers were going to do to her political career what she's done to our economy.
03:04But she could have chosen today to bring down welfare spending and get more people into work. Instead, she has chosen to put up tax after tax after tax. Taxes on workers. Taxes on savers. Taxes on pensioners. Taxes on investors. Taxes on homes.
03:22holidays, holidays, holidays, holidays, I think even milkshakes. Taxes on anyone doing the right thing. She and this Government have lost what little credibility they had left and no one will ever trust her again.
03:37What's amazing, Madam Deputy Speaker, is that she has the nerve to come to this House and claim this is all someone else's fault. A laundry list of excuses.
03:47Yes, yes, yes, yes. Madam Deputy Speaker, they blame the Conservatives as if we've been sneaking into the Treasury under the cover of darkness to give pay rises to the unions.
03:58She inherited an economy with inflation at 2% and record high employment. She has tanked it in just over a year. Endless excuses. She blames Brexit. She blames Donald Trump. She needs to blame herself.
04:11And I've got some news for her. The Chancellor didn't seem to understand what the OBR was saying. Inflation is up, not down. And that inflation was stoked by her tax and spend decisions.
04:25The Economic Fiscal Outlook says that they expect inflation to stay higher for longer. Everybody else has read it. She still hasn't read the OBR analysis.
04:34She blames higher than expected borrowing costs. Where does she think they came from? Those borrowing costs are driven by her lack of grip. She is paying more, you're saying us, she's paying more to borrow than Greece.
04:48She is paying more to borrow than at any point under the 14 years of consulted government. Perhaps if Labour MPs read a book sometimes, they would know something. That includes an energy crisis, Madam Deputy Speaker. Under us, we had an energy crisis sparked by a war in Ukraine and a global pandemic. What is her excuse? What is her excuse?
05:11She is taking the public for fools. But they are under no illusions whose fault this is. The fact is, the bad choices she is making today, choices to break promises, choices to put up taxes, choices to spend more of other people's money, are because of the bad choices she made at the last disastrous budget.
05:34If you want growth, you need to start with knowing what kind of country you want to be and make a plan to get there, create certainty for the people and businesses who will drive growth.
05:49There is no growth and no plan because Labour focused on settling scores and scratching the itches they had in opposition. She promised stability. She delivered chaos.
06:00Just look at the circus around this budget. First the leaks, then more leaks to try to undo the damage. Calling panicky press conferences, U-turning on her U-turns, rolling the pitch one day only to plough through it the next.
06:14She had the cheek to talk about stability, Madam Deputy Speaker. She has become the first Chancellor in history to release the whole budget ahead of time. This is extraordinary. It tells you everything you need to know about her grip on the Treasury.
06:27She is making the UK a shambolic laughing stock to international investors. And if she does not resign for breaking her promises, she should sure as hell go for this.
06:35But, Madam Deputy Speaker, what have we got for all this chaos and disorder? There are a million more people claiming universal credit than there were at the time of the last budget.
06:54Government spending? Up.
06:56Welfare spending? Up.
06:58Universal credit claimants? Up.
07:00Unemployment? Up.
07:01Debt interest? Up.
07:03Inflation? Up.
07:05And what about the things that you want to go up? What about the things you want to go up? Growth? Down.
07:11Investment? Down.
07:13Business confidence? Down.
07:15The credibility of the Chancellor? Down.
07:18And not just down, through the floor. These figures are shocking. Does she really think that anyone will be confused by the sleight of hand that she had in her speech?
07:28Her speech today was an exercise in self-delusion. Today, she had an opportunity to apologise and show some humility.
07:38Instead, we have been fed puff pieces in the Times and the FT, showing a woman wallowing in self-pity, whining about mansplaining and misogyny.
07:49Madam Deputy Speaker, let me explain to the Chancellor.
07:55Woman.
07:56Order.
07:57Colleagues need to simmer down, most definitely, and just breathe a little and allow the Leader of the Opposition to be heard.
08:06All we've had is wallowing in self-pity and whining about misogyny and mansplaining.
08:13So, Madam Deputy Speaker, let me explain to the Chancellor, woman to woman.
08:19People out there aren't complaining because she's female, they're complaining because she is utterly incompetent.
08:27Yeah!
08:28Real equality...
08:33Real equality means being held to the same standard as everyone else.
08:39It means being judged on results.
08:42Take her bright idea, the Office for Value for Money.
08:45It's been closed down because it didn't save a penny.
08:49In fact, it cost the taxpayer £1.6 million.
08:52You couldn't make this stuff up.
08:54Madam Deputy Speaker, I've identified a way to save taxpayers huge amounts of money by sacking just one person.
09:00The woman sitting opposite.
09:02The ex-chief economist of the Bank of England was not mansplaining.
09:08He wasn't mansplaining when he said the uncertainty around today's budget is the single biggest reason growth has flatlined.
09:16What did the Chancellor think would happen when she went on breakfast telly to do an emergency public service announcement?
09:23I interrupt your Cheerios to bring you this frightening message about income tax.
09:27And then, unbelievably, she changed her mind three days later.
09:33No wonder people are in despair.
09:36She says she wants people to respect her.
09:40Order.
09:41I thank you, Polly, for drowning out the Leader of the Opposition's speech.
09:48So just be mindful that nobody will be able to hear her at home.
09:53Leader of the Opposition.
09:58Madam Deputy Speaker, she says she wants people to respect her.
10:03Respect is earned.
10:06She apparently told Labour MPs this week,
10:09she told Labour MPs this week,
10:11I'll show the media, I'll show the Tories, I will not let them beat me.
10:15Show us what?
10:16Making stuff up at the dispatch box.
10:18Incompetence.
10:19Chaos.
10:20And the highest tax burden in history.
10:22She said to them, Madam Deputy Speaker,
10:25I'll be there on Wednesday.
10:26I'll be there next year.
10:28And I'll be back the year after that.
10:30God help us.
10:31She is spineless, shameless and completely aimless.
10:35Talk to any business.
10:37Talk to any business.
10:39Talk to someone looking for a job.
10:42Unemployment is up every single month since Labour have been in office.
10:47They don't want to hear it, but it's true.
10:50They're shouting and complaining they cannot create jobs.
10:53It is the worst year for graduate recruitment on record.
10:57Are they proud of this?
10:59Companies like Merck and Ineos slashing investment plan.
11:03If you're on the front bench, I can obviously see you, Mr Kyle.
11:08And there's no need for you to be chuntering this loud.
11:11They can see and hear you as well.
11:13Needle opposition.
11:14Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.
11:17They don't want to hear the truth, but I'm speaking for all of those people out there who are sick of this government.
11:22Companies like Merck and Ineos are slashing investment plans.
11:30The construction sector has shrunk.
11:33How is that house building target going, by the way?
11:36I'll tell you, Madam Deputy Speaker, they are miles behind and we won't even come close to what we achieved.
11:41Business confidence is at record lows.
11:44No wonder today future growth has been revised down in every year of the scorecard.
11:50The papers are reporting that one in eight business leaders is planning to leave Britain.
11:55Even one of Labour's biggest ever donors, Lakshmi Mittal, has fled the country.
12:01What we have in front of us is a budget littered with broken promises.
12:07She stood on a manifesto which promised better returns for UK savers.
12:11Today she's putting up taxes on savings, on salary sacrifice even.
12:15She promised to give pensioners the security and retirement they deserve.
12:19Today she slapped higher taxes on people saving for their pension.
12:24She promised to make Britain the best place in the world to invest and do business.
12:29Today she has raised the dividend tax rates.
12:32She and the Prime Minister had already broken their promise to freeze council tax,
12:37but today she's decided to go even further, introducing a new property tax clobbering family homes that will only raise small amounts.
12:46This, this is Labour's Britain.
12:51This is Labour's Britain.
12:54People who work hard, Madam Deputy Speaker, people who work hard and save hard to buy their homes get taxed more,
13:01while those who don't work, who in some cases refuse to work, get their accommodation paid for by taxpayers.
13:08And then to top it all off, because taxing your home, your car, your savings and your pension wasn't enough,
13:13she has, by her own admission, broken her manifesto promise on income tax.
13:19Because in the last budget, she said, and I quote,
13:23I am keeping every single promise on tax that I made in our manifesto,
13:27so there will be no extension of the freeze in income tax thresholds.
13:32She said in that budget that extending the threshold freeze would hurt working people and take money out of their paywalls.
13:39But today she has done exactly that.
13:42Why should anyone believe anything she's promised in this budget?
13:46And so where is the money going?
13:49Small changes to railfares and prescriptions, these are distractions while she steals your wallet.
13:53The real story here, Madam Deputy Speaker, the real story is that Labour have lost control of welfare spending.
14:01Not only will working people have their tax thresholds frozen while benefits go up in line with inflation,
14:09not only have Labour abandoned reforms that would have saved the taxpayer £5 billion after pressure from these backbenchers,
14:17today they have added another £3 billion to the bill by scrapping the two-child benefit cap.
14:24We introduced that cap, Madam Deputy Speaker, because it means people on benefits have to make the same decisions about having children as everyone else.
14:37Even Labour voters know that it strikes the right balance between supporting people who are struggling and protecting taxpayers who are struggling themselves.
14:47Just this summer the Chancellor admitted that lifting the two-child benefit cap was not affordable.
14:54But that was before the Prime Minister accidentally fired the starting gun on the race to replace him.
14:59So now he and the Chancellor are buying the votes of their own MPs with taxpayers' money.
15:05If she wants to reduce child poverty, she should stop taxing their parents and stop destroying their jobs.
15:14She congratulated herself on a new tax on landlords.
15:18Let me tell her this, hiking tax on landlords will only push up rents.
15:22It will push landlords out of the market.
15:24The people who will suffer are the tenants.
15:27And then she talks about taxes on electric vehicles.
15:30These changes will hit rural drivers the hardest, but we know that Labour don't care about rural people.
15:37All this budget delivers is higher taxes and out-of-control spending.
15:43Nobody voted for this.
15:44The Chancellor must take responsibility.
15:47She chose to impose the jobs tax, driving unemployment higher month after month.
15:52She chose to abandon welfare reform, meaning the benefits bill is spiralling.
15:57She chose to spend more and more money she didn't have, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill.
16:02She is out of money, out of ideas, out of her depth, and she has run out of road.
16:09The country simply cannot afford a Chancellor who can't keep her own promises.
16:14Her position is untenable, and she knows it.
16:17She's talking to the Chancellor.
16:18Is he mansplaining to you, by the way?
16:20Is he mansplaining?
16:21Do you want some help?
16:22Would you like some help?
16:23What the Prime Minister should do is grow a backbone and sack her.
16:31But he won't, because he knows if she goes down, he goes down with her.
16:37So we're stuck with them both, Laurel and Foolhardy.
16:41Does she have any sympathy for the people facing Christmas without a salary because of her jobs tax?
16:51For the retailers who are suffering sleepless nights because of their plummeting Christmas sales?
16:57People out there are crying.
16:59Last year we had the horrors of the Halloween budget.
17:02This year is the nightmare before Christmas.
17:04And as for her, she's the unwelcome Christmas guest.
17:08Ten minutes through the door, and she's eaten all the quality street, Madam Deputy Speaker.
17:12But let me tell the Chancellor something she has forgotten.
17:27Behind every line in today's Red Book is a family, a home, a lifetime of work and sacrifice.
17:35People are frightened, and they have every reason to be.
17:39The Chancellor has spent the last year terrifying them.
17:42Every decision that she and the Prime Minister make puts more pressure on the people who keep this country going.
17:48If Labour are the party of working people, why is it that every day under them, thousands more people are signing off work and onto benefits?
17:56It's Conservatives who are the party of work, the Labour Party should be renamed the Welfare Party.
18:01And they are making a mistake.
18:05The British public don't want higher welfare spending.
18:08They want people in work providing for themselves.
18:12They want to live in a country where hard work pays.
18:15Where what you put in reflects what you get out.
18:18And we agree with them.
18:20There is an alternative.
18:22We Conservatives have set it out.
18:24This budget could have saved £47 billion, including £23 billion from welfare.
18:29She could have applied our golden economic rule, allocating half of those savings to cutting the deficit and using the rest to cut taxes.
18:36Oh, they are all pretending they are not listening.
18:38It's the shame of the mess they have made.
18:40It's the shame of the mess they have made.
18:42Order.
18:43Order.
18:44Order.
18:45Mr Vince.
18:47Mr Thompson, you are so enthusiastic.
18:50I was worried you are going to knock Mr Warwick off his chair a moment ago.
18:53So we need to calm down and breathe.
18:55And we need to ensure that we can hear the Leader of the Opposition.
18:59Kenny Batenock.
19:01Even the dog is laughing at the Chancellor, Madam Deputy Speaker.
19:05She could have applied our golden economic rule, allocating half of those savings to cutting the deficit, using the rest to cut taxes.
19:14She could have abolished stamp duty on homes to get the housing market moving.
19:18Abolished business rates on shops to breathe life into our streets.
19:21She could have introduced our cheap power plant.
19:24It saves a lot more money than what she announced would bring down energy costs for homes and businesses.
19:29That's what she should have done.
19:30She should be on the side of people who get up and go to work.
19:34People who take a risk to start a company.
19:37People working all hours to keep their business afoot.
19:40She should be on the side of the farmer trying to hand something over to the next generation.
19:46The investor deciding whether to spend their money in the UK or elsewhere.
19:50She should be on the side of the young person looking for their first job.
19:54The saver doing the right thing and putting money away for a rainy day.
19:59The pensioner trying to enjoy a decent retirement.
20:02This country works when you make the country work for them.
20:06Only the Conservatives are on their side, Madam Deputy Speaker.
20:09And our plan for them is simple.
20:13Bring down energy costs.
20:15Cut spending.
20:16Cut tax.
20:17Back business.
20:18And get Britain working again.
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