Spring Statement or ‘Emergency Budget’?

Coffee House Shots

The Spectator

News, Politics, Government, Daily News

4.4 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 19 March 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

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Summary

The question that everyone in Westminster wants answered is what will actually be included in next week’s Spring Statement. Previously, the Spring Statement wasn’t looking like much to write home about – little more than an update. But with the economy taking a turn for the worse and her fiscal headroom narrowing, it has taken on renewed importance for Rachel Reeves, with the opposition trying their best to brand it as an ‘Emergency Budget’. What does Reeves need to do to calm the markets?

Also on the podcast, Pensions Minister Torsten Bell gave an interesting interview to Newsnight last night, defending the government’s welfare reforms. Where are we with the fallout from Liz Kendall’s benefit crackdown?

James Heale speaks to Isabel Hardman and Katy Balls.

Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode of Coffee House Shots is sponsored by Alliance Witten Investment Trust. From the OPEC
0:06.0	Oil Crisis of the 1970s, the financial crash in 2008, to the COVID epidemic and Liz Truss's
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.
0:35.5	If you're looking for a less stressful way to invest in stocks and shares,
0:39.2	learn more about Alliance Witten and find your comfort zone. Hello, and welcome to Coffee House Shots. I'm James Hill and I'm joined today by Isabel Hardman and Katie Balls.
0:58.6	Now, Isabel, it's Wednesday, so that means it's PMQs. Unsurprisingly, perhaps,
1:02.6	Kemi Badenock chose to go on the economy ahead of next week's spring statement. Tell us more.
1:06.2	Yeah, she talks largely about what she calls the emergency budget and Labor's Jobs Tax,
1:13.5	which is the hike in employers' national insurance contributions.
1:18.0	And she didn't really talk about benefit cuts at all.
1:21.1	I mean, she talked about the winter fuel payment, but she didn't really,
1:24.5	I think she basically decided that she'd let the labour back bench
1:27.7	attack Kirstama on the benefit cuts, particularly given the conservative stances that they
1:32.8	haven't gone far enough. So ahead of that spring statement, she kind of honed in on the most
1:40.3	emotive cases that are going to be affected by the hike in NNI contributions,
1:46.5	which obviously comes in at the start of next month. She talked about hospices, community
1:51.6	pharmacies and social care providers and so on. Something she's talked about before,
1:58.5	something Ed Davy has talked about before at Prime Minister's
2:00.8	questions, and she asked whether the Prime Minister was going to make an exemption for that,
	...

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