{"id":503798,"date":"2025-10-16T09:27:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T09:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/503798\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T09:27:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T09:27:15","slug":"rachel-reeves-blames-brexit-while-planning-tax-increases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/503798\/","title":{"rendered":"Rachel Reeves Blames Brexit While Planning Tax Increases"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rachel Reeves <\/a>has blamed the impact of Brexit <\/a>as she prepares to increase taxes and slash public spending in next month\u2019s Budget.<\/p>\n

The chancellor said the economic consequences of leaving the European Union<\/a> were \u201csevere and long lasting\u201d.<\/p>\n

Her comments are the harshest criticism of the UK\u2019s decision to quit the EU in the 2016 referendum by a Labour <\/a>minister.<\/p>\n

It indicates that she plans to pin the blame on Reform UK<\/a> leader and enthusiastic Brexit backer Nigel Farage<\/a> for Britain\u2019s economic woes. <\/p>\n

Reeves also said the last Tory government\u2019s austerity programme, as well as Liz Truss\u2019s mini-Budget<\/a>, had contributed to the \u00a330 billion black hole she needs to fill.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Sky News<\/a>, she said: \u201cAlready, people thought that the UK economy would be 4% smaller because of Brexit. Now, of course, we are undoing some of that damage by the deal that we did with the EU earlier this year on food and farming, goods moving between us and the continent, on energy and electricity trading, on an ambitious youth mobility scheme.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there is no doubting that the impact of Brexit is severe and long lasting and that\u2019s why we are trying to do trade deals around the world, US, India, but most importantly with the EU so that our exporters here in Britain have a chance to sell things made here all around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reeves also gave her clearest hint yet that taxes will rise and public spending will be cut in the Budget on November 26.<\/p>\n

She said she would \u201calways make sure that the numbers add up\u201d, while acknowledging that there is still a huge gap between what the government spends and what it raises in tax.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, we\u2019re looking at tax and spending as well, but the numbers will always add up with me as chancellor because we saw just three years ago, what happens when a government, where the Conservatives lost control of the public finances, inflation and interest rates went through the roof,\u201d the chancellor said.<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cThe British people know that there are difficult decisions, but I will make those in the right interests of our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sir Nick Harvey, chief executive of European Movement UK, said: \u201cRachel Reeves\u2019s comments before her upcoming Budget suggest we may be heading towards striking a new honesty in British politics, one where Labour big beasts like Reeves, Starmer <\/a>and Streeting<\/a> no longer shy away from the truth of the damage that leaving the EU has done to the British economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been clear for years just how extreme that damage is. Tens of billions wiped off the UK economy every single year, whilst the fiscal black hole continues to grow.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter years of evasion, policymakers are speaking candidly about the deep and lasting damage Brexit has done to trade, productivity and business investment.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThe government must continue to pull down the walls that have blocked politicians from being honest about the damage Brexit has done to the UK economy, and take every practical step possible to undo that damage.<\/p>\n

\u201cRed lines or not, access to the single market would begin to rapidly repair the ongoing pain our economy is experiencing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Naomi Smith, chief executive of anti-Brexit campaign group Best for Britain, said: \u201cRachel Reeves is completely correct to highlight the severity and long-term damage of Brexit but more importantly has been a calamity for Brits facing spiralling supermarket prices and rocketing energy bills.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur polling shows a majority of voters – including Labour\u2019s own winning coalition – increasingly view Brexit as a failure for the country, and rightly expect ministers to urgently work with the EU to find a pragmatic way to fix the damage.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rachel Reeves has blamed the impact of Brexit as she prepares to increase taxes and slash public spending…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,1194,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,619,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-503798","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-budget","11":"tag-eu","12":"tag-europe","13":"tag-european","14":"tag-european-union","15":"tag-great-britain","16":"tag-rachel-reeves","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115383136676958400","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}