Spending review latest: Fears ‘staggering’ cuts may be required by Rachel Reeves

The chancellor will unveil the results of her line by line spending review, setting out the budgets of government departments until the end of the decade on Wednesday.

Rachel Reeves’ spending review has taken place in two parts, with phase one set out in her October Budget – which included £40 billion of tax hikes and set out departmental spending until 2026.

The second phase has seen departments ordered to set out how adopting technologies such as AI and reforming public services can free up government cash and support the delivery of Labour’s missions.

Wednesday’s review will set out day-to-day departmental spending for the next three years and investment spending for the next four.

Reeves has ruled out borrowing for day-to-day spending and has insisted she will not raise taxes again, prompting questions about how the policies will be funded and whether cuts will be made.

The Conservatives have branded the Government’s nuclear development plans as a “downgrade” on the previous government’s commitments.

Speaking from the frontbench, Conservative MP Nick Timothy (West Suffolk) said: “This statement is a downgrade on what the last government put in motion. Today, the Energy Secretary has announced only one small modular reactor (SMR). There is no clear target to increase nuclear power generation, and no news on Wylfa.

“The nuclear industry is expecting news of a third gigawatt-scale reactor. The last government purchased the land and committed to build but on this today, the Energy Secretary said nothing.

“So can he commit to the planning inherited for a third gigawatt-scale plant at Wylfa? And will he recommit to the Conservative policy of 24 gigawatts of nuclear power by 2050?”

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband replied: “I do sort of slightly scratch my head, because he sort of says it’s a downgrade, I mean, we’ve announced the largest nuclear building programme in 50 years.”

Rachel Reeves will need to wield the axe and make nearly £5bn worth of cuts to balance the books in the wake of Labour’s spending review, new analysis has revealed.

The chancellor will on Wednesday announce funding for all departments until the next election in 2029 after a bitter cabinet civil war over what is being dubbed “austerity 2.0”.

But experts have warned Labour will have to make billions of pounds of cuts to ensure Reeves can fulfil her spending plans — with areas such as housing, policing and border control expected to be in the line of fire.

Read The Independent’s full exclusive report here:

Rachel Reeves will this week make one of her biggest statements to MPs since Labour’s general election victory.

The chancellor will unveil the results of her line by line spending review, setting out the budgets of government departments until the end of the decade.

The spending review will take place after Prime Minister’s Questions, so at around 12.30pm, on Wednesday, 11 June.

The Independent’s political correspondent Millie Cooke reports:

People will be “more safe” not less after the spending review, the prime minister has insisted, promising there is money going into policing and security.

His comments came ahead of Wednesday’s review of government departments, amid growing speculation that there could be cuts to police force numbers and a squeezed Home Office budget.

Asked whether people will be less safe after the spending review, Sir Keir told GB News: “They will be more safe. There’s money going into policing, into security, and that is really important, particularly coming from my background.

“I was chief prosecutor for five years, prosecuting cases across England and Wales. So this is a core belief.

“Those extra police officers will be neighbourhood police officers, and I think that will give people the reassurance in their communities that they are safe”.

Not far from me, in the lovely Leicestershire village of Nevil Holt, for some reason a replica of the notorious “Ed Stone” has been erected in a churchyard. It’s all part of the small but growing Nevil Holt art and literature festival, and I imagine it’s to remind passersby of the ephemeral nature of so much of politics – if not life.

The energy secretary is one of politics’ great survivors – but his plan to build a £14bn power station on the Suffolk coast could leave a toxic legacy, says Sean O’Grady:

Rachel Reeves has acknowledged that not enough people are feeling the progress Labour has made and said her spending review will be about “making working people better off”.

She said the Government was “making Labour choices” and “making progress” in an address to the GMB Union Congress in Brighton on Tuesday.

She said: “I know that not enough working people are yet feeling that progress, and that’s what tomorrow’s spending review is all about – making working people better off, investing in our security, investing in our health, investing in our economy.

“This Government is going for growth because that is the best way to create jobs, boost wages, lift people out of poverty, and sustainably fund our schools and our hospitals and all the public services we rely on.

“And we’re doing things differently, because unlike the Tories, I don’t think that the only good thing that a government can do is get out of the way.”