Spring statement 2025 live: Rachel Reeves set to slash benefits further to plug £1.6bn budget black hole

As speculation grows over today’s Spring statement amid reports Rachel Reeves is gearing up to make further welfare cuts, the Treasury is trying, and apparently failing, to see off a rebellion from its own MPs.

The Times reported overnight that Rachel Reeves is gearing up to make £500 million worth of extra cuts to help balance the books, on top of the sweeping cuts announced last week.

Labour MPs, who were called into see chief secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones yesterday as part of an attempt to see off their concerns, were not pre-briefed on the plans, The Independent understands.

While it is understood more MPs will be called in to meet with the Treasury today, behind the scenes MPs are becoming increasingly frustrated and concerned – with one senior backbencher dubbing the situation a “s***show”.

When Rachel Reeves stands up in the Commons to deliver her spring statement, she will do so in a maelstrom mostly of her own making.

Pre-statement briefings about cuts to the welfare budget have been met with derision from schools, the care sector and disabled Britons – not to mention her own Labour cabinet colleagues, the people she has strong-armed into pruning £5bn from departmental budgets.

In the run-up to today, the bad news has kept coming. Government borrowing exceeded the Office for Budget Responsibility’s predictions last month, meaning its first-round forecast for her spending cuts have prompted some last-minute revisions and hand-wringing: even more benefits cuts have been scrambled in order to make up the new £1.6bn shortfall.

Former MP Kenny MacAskill has been elected as Alex Salmond’s successor as leader of the Alba Party.

Mr Salmond founded the party after leaving the SNP and his death at a conference in North Macedonia in October left it searching for a new leader.

Acting leader Mr MacAskill won the leadership contest with 1,331 votes (52.3 per cent), the party announced at an event in Edinburgh, beating rival candidate Alba MSP Ash Regan, who secured 1,212 votes (47.7 per cent).

A disability equality charity chief has warned Rachel Reeves her expected further welfare cuts will drive even more disabled people into poverty.

James Taylor, Director of Strategy at Scope, said: “The government is rushing to make further cuts with no thought to the impact on disabled people.

“This is on top of billions of pounds in cuts that were the primary motivation for welfare reform.

“This move will further hit disabled people hard and drive even more into poverty.

“There has to be a better way of reforming welfare than moving from one set of knee-jerk proposals to another.”

Rachel Reeves is set to unveil billions of pounds worth of cuts in her spring statement, in what could be one of the most pivotal moments in her career.

The chancellor had hoped her speech might be simply a straightforward update on the state of the country’s finances.

But faltering economic growth and higher than expected borrowing figures, combined with her pledge not to raise taxes after her multi-billion pound raid in last year’s Budget, have raised the stakes.

Here, The Independent’s whitehall editor Kate Devlin takes a look at what the chancellor is expected to announce – and the political fault lines it could trigger:

Falls in the cost of clothing, kitchenware and air travel contributed to an overall easing of the UK’s inflation rate last month, though prices accelerated for a handful of everyday groceries including eggs and sugar.

Women’s clothes recorded one of the largest movements in inflation, swinging from a year-on-year rise in January of 4.2 per cent to a year-on-year drop last month of 0.2 per cent.

Prices fell faster for children’s clothing in February (down 2.5 per cent year-on-year) than they did in January (down 0.4 per cent), as they did for fridges and freezers (down 7.5 per cent in February, down 0.6 per cent in January); for washing machines, dryers and dishwashers (down 3.7 per cent in February, down 0.4 per cent in January); and for coffee machines and tea-makers (down 8.9 per cent in February, down 5.6 per cent in January).

The cost of air travel fell once again, down 2.6 per cent year-on-year, following a drop of 2.0 per cent in January, according to figures published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Annual inflation slowed in February for a range of groceries, including olive oil, up 11.2 per cent compared with a steeper rise of 16.6 per cent in January; coffee, up 8.6 per cent compared with 11.6 per cent; confectionery, up 2.7 per cent compared 5.7 per cent; and tea, up 1.0 per cent compared with 4.3 per cent, while yoghurt swung from positive inflation in January (up 1.3 per cent) to negative in February (down 1.2 per cent).

By contrast, inflation accelerated for some household essentials, though no items recorded a sharp jump.

The average price of pizza and quiche was up 3.9 per cent year-on-year in February, compared with a rise of just 0.7 per cent in January, while eggs were up 5.0 per cent, compared with an increase the previous month of 4.1 per cent.

Inflation also accelerated for ice cream (up 4.9 per cent year-on-year in February, up 2.2 per cent in January); soft drinks (up 3.6 per cent February, up 2.8 per cent January); and fresh or chilled fruit (up 3.8 per cent February, up 3.0 per cent January), while sugar swung from negative annual inflation (down 2.1 per cent) to positive (0.8 per cent).

The cost of filling up at the pumps showed little movement, with petrol prices down 2.1 per cent year-on-year in February, similar to the drop of 2.0 per cent in January. Diesel prices fell slightly faster last month (down 3.2 per cent year-on-year) than in January (down 2.8 per cent).

Donald Trump’s administration has “got a case” for saying that European nations need to do more to fund and provide their own security, the Defence Secretary has said.

John Healey suggested that the US has laid down a “challenge” which the UK is responding to in its work to put together a coalition of nations that would be willing to defend a peace deal in Ukraine.

Mr Healey’s comments came after the US Signal group chat blunder revealed vice president JD Vance hated “bailing Europe out” and Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said “European freeloading” was “pathetic”.

The comments in the chat, which inadvertently included a journalist from The Atlantic, were related to US strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen but come against a backdrop of Mr Trump’s drive to end the war in Ukraine and pull back from commitments in Europe.

It comes as Russia and Ukraine have agreed to pause hostilities in the Black Sea, a move Mr Healey welcomed as a potential “precursor” to a broader ceasefire.

However, there are signals that the US could be willing to ease some sanctions on Moscow as part of a deal.

Asked how he felt about being called a pathetic freeloader, Mr Healey told Times Radio: “I regard it more as a challenge.”

He added: “The Americans have absolutely got a case that on defence spending, on European security, on our support for Ukraine, European nations can and will do more, and the UK is leading the way.”