Budget 2024 UK live: Wes Streeting warns of hard winter for NHS as ‘working people’ face tax rise

The Treasury has posted a picture on social media of the Budget’s front cover ahead of tomorrow’s event. The subheading reads: “Fixing the foundations to deliver change.”

Speaking in Commons, Conservative shadow innovation minister Saqib Bhatti pressed the chancellor to clarify reported plans to end the ongoing freeze on fuel duty.

Mr Bhatti suggested “any rise in fuel duty, which the Conservatives froze or cut for 14 years, would be a tax on those hardworking people or those hardworking small business owners”.

The Chancellor replied: “The previous government factored into their forecast an increase in fuel duty this year. I will set out our plans in the Budget tomorrow.”

The fuel duty cut – of 5p per litre on diesel and unleaded fuels – was due to end in March 2025, according to the previous government’s spending plans.

The updated ministerial code will close the “Tory freebie loophole”, Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds has said.

Labour MP Kevin Bonavia (Stevenage), asked if the Government will “confirm that we will honour the pledges it made at the election”.

Mr Thomas-Symonds replied: “One of the many things that the Conservative government over 14 years destroyed, trust, I’m afraid was one of them, something this Government is determined to rebuild.”

James Wild, Conservative MP for North West Norfolk, asked: “why has the Prime Minister not yet published an updated version of the ministerial code? Are they still working out whether it is right to accept suits and glasses?”

Mr Thomas-Symonds replied: “We have already said that the Prime Minister will update the ministerial code and publish it shortly, and it’s making sure that it is fit for purpose, dealing with problems like the Tory freebie loophole, and that it meets the high standards the Prime Minister expects.”

Ahead of the Budget, Sir Keir Starmer chaired a political Cabinet meeting, without civil service officials.

A Labour spokesman said: “This Budget is about investment with Labour versus decline under the Conservatives. The Prime Minister opened the political Cabinet meeting by saying that ‘politics is about choices’ and that the Budget tomorrow will show that ‘we are choosing to fix the NHS, rebuild Britain and protect the payslips of working people’, to deliver on our mandate for change.

The Chancellor told ministers “there would have to be difficult decisions on spending, welfare and tax” to deal with the legacy she inherited.

“She said the Labour Party promised there would be no return to austerity and the Budget tomorrow would deliver on that promise. She said the choices the Government is taking will restore economic stability.

“She said the Budget would fix the foundations of the economy and deliver on the promise of change.”

Union leaders are braced for increased taxes and spending cuts in Rachel Reeves’ Budget.

The chancellor has already warned she has had to make “difficult” choices in her first Budget, and the first one ever to be delivered by a female chancellor.

Labour is expected to increase employers’ national insurance contributions, extend the freeze on income tax thresholds, increase in capital gains tax on shares, and close inheritance tax loopholes.

One union leader told the Independent: “The impression we are getting is that no-one is going to be happy”.

Rachel Reeves’ first budget is about “protecting the payslips of working people”, the prime minister told a political Cabinet meeting.

It comes amid a growing row over the definition of “working people”, with the party having promised not to raise national insurance, income tax or VAT on those individuals.

Addressing the meeting on Tuesday, Sir Keir said “politics is about choices”, adding that Wednesday’s Budget will show the party is “choosing to fix the NHS, rebuild Britain and protect the payslips of working people”.

The prime minister also said that the “question for the Budget is not whether we must act, it is how we act and what choices we make in the national interest”, a Labour Party spokesperson said.

The Government will back the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), not trash it, the Prime Minister’s spokesman has said after Jeremy Hunt complained about the body publishing a review of the last administration’s spending plans on the same day as the Budget.

The former chancellor complained that the body publishing a review into the “black hole” Labour says it inherited on the same day as the Budget is not impartial.

Asked if the Government was using the OBR as a political tool, Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman said: “No, the Prime Minister is clear that this Government is going to back the independent OBR, not trash it.

“The answer is not to blame the referee, face up to the challenges we faced and be honest about the trade-offs and choices the Government face, not pretend they don’t exist.

“That’s why the Government is strengthening the OBR through the Budget Responsibility Act to ensure that it’s never sidelined again, like we saw during the mini budget.

“The Government has been up front about the black hole of the nation’s finances and it fully backs the OBR and the independent scrutiny it provides.”

The public wants to hear a “positive, proactive vision” for growing the economy and restoring public services when the Chancellor delivers her Budget on Wednesday, a poll has found.

Polling by Ipsos on the eve of the Budget found 84 per cent of people thought it was important to hear about Labour’s plans for improving public services during Rachel Reeves’s speech while 80 per cent wanted to hear about plans to grow the economy.

Only 69 per cent said they wanted to hear about the financial “black hole” in current spending plans while less than half the public said it was important for Ms Reeves to talk about the role of the previous government in bringing about the current situation.

So far, more people said they had heard negative stories about the problems facing public services and the economy than about Labour’s plans for the future.

Trinh Tu, managing director of Ipsos UK public affairs, said the public was “sending a clear message” to the Government – “we know the problems, now give us solutions”.

She said: “Awareness of the challenges is high, but people are much less clear on Labour’s plans to address them.

As Chancellor Rachel Reeves prepares to deliver Labour’s first Budget in 14 years, we want to hear your views. How should “working people” be defined? Should high earners or those with investments be included? And how should this affect decisions in the upcoming Budget?

Share your thoughts here — we’ll highlight the most insightful comments as they come in.

Conservative MPs have gathered in Westminster to call on the Government to “think again” about means-testing the winter fuel payment.

Later on Tuesday, they will hand in a petition to the Treasury ahead of Rachel Reeves’ first Budget on Wednesday.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Mel Stride told the PA news agency that the petition has collected “over a quarter of a million signatures”.

Mr Stride said that they are “calling upon the Government to think again about means-testing the winter fuel payment”.

He said “many” pensioners are going to “really, really struggle”, adding: “This Government chose to give well above inflationary pay rises to trade union paymasters when it came to wage settlements and chose to take this money away from some of the most vulnerable people in the country. We don’t believe that’s right.”