Reeves goes on the defensive
Coffee House Shots
The Spectator
4.4 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 27 March 2025
⏱️ 13 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
She is navigating two main issues: first, the additional welfare reforms have caused disquiet in the Labour Party, with a potential rebellion on the horizon; second, the conversation has already turned to whether she will have to return for further tax rises in the autumn. Meanwhile, her headroom is under threat once again following this morning’s news that Donald Trump will impose a 25 per cent tariff on all imported cars. Can she keep the party – and the finances – in check?
Oscar Edmondson speaks to Katy Balls and Michael Simmons.
Produced by Oscar Edmondson.
For tickets to The Spectator’s Spring Statement special live Coffee House Shots, click here.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode of Coffee House Shots is sponsored by Alliance Witten Investment Trust. From the OPEC |
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| 0:13.1 | doomed premiership. There has been no shortage of economic crises over the last 58 years. And yet, |
| 0:19.6 | throughout that time, every single year, without fail, |
| 0:22.8 | we've paid out an increased dividend to our shareholders. In fact, Alliance Witten's history |
| 0:28.3 | dates all the way back to 1888. And today, we manage around £5 billion in assets. |
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| 0:46.3 | Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots, the Spectator's Daily Politics Podcast. I'm |
| 0:50.6 | Oscar Edmondson and I'm joined today by Katie Balls and Michael Simmons. |
| 0:56.6 | And it is, of course, the morning after the spring statement. |
| 1:00.6 | And Rachel Reeves has just finished her broadcast round where she's faced lots of tough questions about some very unfavourable splashes in morning newspapers. |
| 1:04.7 | Katie, how has the spring statement landed? |
| 1:07.1 | So it's not landed particularly well, but if we're being fair, as we've tried to be on this podcast, |
| 1:12.7 | I don't think anyone thought it was going to land well, |
| 1:14.4 | because everything we've known about the spring statement in advance was ultimately that Rachel Reeves was going to have to make some quite difficult decisions |
| 1:21.5 | and face some quite gloomy forecast because the economy has deteriorated since the last budget. |
| 1:29.4 | So when you look across the papers today, I mean, she is getting it from both sides. I think it's fair to say. You know, |
| 1:33.5 | the daily mail is branding her as deluded. Daily Telegraph is warning of five years of record taxes. |
| 1:38.9 | Then on the other side, you have the Guardian saying Reeves accused of balancing books at expense |
| 1:43.4 | of the poor. And then the FT going on tax rise fears cloud Reeves accused of balancing books at expense of the poor, |
| 1:48.5 | and then the FT going on tax rise, fears, cloud, Reeves's fiscal fix, |
... |
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