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Autumn Budget 2024: Live updates and stream as tax and spend policy revealed

Photo: Lauren Hurley / DESNZ

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is unveiling Labour’s first Budget since 2010 today, laying out new spending policies alongside long-promised “difficult decisions” over £40bn tax hikes and departmental spending plans that could define the years to come.

Follow for live updates below as Reeves, the first woman to ever deliver the Budget, gives her speech in Parliament from around 12.30pm following Prime Minister’s Questions, and the Treasury publishes accompanying documents on the small print soon after. (Scroll to 10.50am below to stream live or watch back.)

Autumn Budget 2024: Read more of our news, comment and explainers here 

“Rebuilding Britain”, fixing the health service, and “protecting working people’s payslips” are the key Labour messages. 

Reeves confirmed the biggest hike to carers’ allowance in decades, a fuel duty freeze, a £25bn-a-year hike to employer national insurance, and compensation worth £11.8bn for infected blood victims and £1.8bn for Post Office scandal victims.

Policies revealed in advance (full list here) include a minimum wage boost, an extended but increased bus fare cap, extra NHS, school and defence funding, and overhauled fiscal rules to boost investment.

Refresh this page for the latest updates, analysis and reaction below from across the Labour movement and beyond.

1.17pm: Income tax and national insurance thresholds will not be frozen, Reeves reveals

Reeves has said there will be no extension of the frozen on income tax and national insurance once they expire in 2028.

She said: “When it comes to choices on tax, this government chooses to protect working people every single time.”

1.15pm: Abolition of non-dom tax regime

Reeves has announced a new residence-based tax scheme and said she will close loopholes made by the Conservative government.

1.15pm: Penny off pints in pubs

Rachel Reeves has announced she will cut draft duty by 1.7%, which she says will shave a penny off the cost of pints in pubs.

1.12pm: New duty on vaping liquid

1.10pm: Inheritance tax thresholds remain frozen

Reeves has said inheritance tax thresholds have remained frozen until 2030.

1.08pm: Capital gains tax hiked on shares

The Chancellor has confirmed that capital gains tax on the sale of shares will be hiked, with the higher threshold rising from 20% to 24%. However, the rate for second homes has not been altered.

1.06pm: Rise in employer contributions to national insurance

Rachel Reeves has confirmed that employer national insurance contributions will rise to 15% in April 2025, with the salary threshold where contributions come into force also cut significantly from £9,100 to £5,000. The measure will raise £25bn a year. The employment allowance has been raised from £5,000 to £10,500.

She said: “In the circumstances I have inherited, this is the right choice to make.”

1.04pm: ‘Working people will not see higher taxes’

Rachel Reeves has said the government has stuck to its pledge not to raise income tax, VAT or national insurance on working people.

1.02pm: Fuel duty to remain frozen

Rachel Reeves admits she has had to take “difficult decisions on tax” but said that the fuel duty freeze will remain in place next year amid concerns about the cost of living, costing the Treasury almost £3bn and saving motorists £60 a year.

1.01pm: Carer’s allowance boosted

The Chancellor has announced that the carer’s allowance will be increased, allowing carers to earn more £10,000 a year, “the largest increase in carer’s allowance since it was introduced in 1976”.

1.00pm: Productivity savings target for departments

Reeves has also said the government will work to reduce wasteful spending in government, with a two percent productivity savings target for government departments.

12.57pm: Inflation-busting increase to minimum wage confirmed

Rachel Reeves has confirmed that the minimum wage will rise by six percent, granting millions of workers on low wages a significant pay rise. From next year, the national living wage for over 21s will rise from £11.44 an hour to £12.21 an hour, an increase of 6.7%. She also said the government will move towards implementing a single adult minimum wage, to be phased in over time.

Read more here

12.55pm: Crackdown on fraudsters

Reeves has announced a crackdown on welfare fraudsters, which is forecast to save £4.3bn for the Treasury.

12.53pm: Government to appoint Covid corruption commissioner

Reeves said that the government will soon appoint a Covid corruption minister to recover money paid for dodgy pandemic contracts.

12.45pm: Budget to raise taxes by £40bn

Reeves confirms that the Budget will raise taxes by £40bn. She said that any Chancellor would “face the same reality”.

12.44pm: ‘Tories did not budget for scandal compensation’

Reeves has set aside £11.8bn for those affected by the infected blood scandal and £1.8bn for those affected by the Post Office Horizon scandal, accusing the Conservatives of not budgeting for the cost of the compensation scheme.

12.42pm: ‘Government has inherited broken public services’

Reeves is now talking about the poor state of the country’s public services inherited by the Conservatives and claims they had no plan to improve them or put the nation’s finances on a stable footing.

12.40pm: £22bn black hole in public finances

Reeves is discussing the state of the public finances and repeats how the government uncovered a £22bn black hole, which she claims was covered up by the last government. She quotes an OBR report that said that the government had not disclosed all pressures on public finances, something Reeves as the “height of irresponsibility”.

12.38pm: ‘Deeply proud to be Britain’s first female Chancellor’

Reeves has addressed that she is the first female Chancellor and said that her place should send a message to girls and young women that there is no ceiling to their ambition.

12.37pm: ‘Turning the page’

Reeves said that investment is necessary in order to drive economic growth, and investment requires economic stability. She says it is not the first time the Labour Party has been put in the position to rebuild Britain and said that the government would “rebuild Britain once again”.

12.35pm: ‘Country voted for change’

Rachel Reeves is beginning her address to Parliament by saying the country voted for a “decade of national renewal” and said that her belief in Britain “burns brighter than ever”.

She said that change must be felt with an NHS that is there when you need it and with more pounds in people’s pockets.

12.32pm: Rachel Reeves to take to dispatch box imminently

PMQs has just concluded, with Rachel Reeves expected to take to the dispatch box to deliver her first Budget within the next few minutes. It is hard not to overstate the historic nature of this occasion – not only is this an important moment for the party, but also for the country as the first Budget delivered by a female Chancellor.

12.29pm: Budget ‘potentially era-defining moment’

12.20pm: Budget will deliver change Britain needs, says Nandy

12.10pm: ‘Let this be a sign that there should be no ceiling on your ambitions’

12.04pm: Starmer pays tribute to Sunak

Starmer has thanked Rishi Sunak for his service as they have their final exchange across the dispatch box, thanking him for his decency and wishing him and his family well in whatever he goes on to do next.

12.00pm: ‘Budget to fix the foundations’

11.55am: Who is speaking at PMQs?

Before we have the Budget, we have the weekly clash of Prime Minister’s Questions – the last where Rishi Sunak will be posing questions as leader of the opposition.

The full list of those who will be asking a question to the Prime Minister later is:

  • Katrina Murray (Cumbernauld and Kirkintilloch)
  • Meg Hillier (Hackney South and Shoreditch)
  • Rachael Maskell (York Central)
  • Melanie Ward (Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy)
  • Rachel Blake (Cities of London and Westminster)
  • Ben Goldsborough (South Norfolk)
  • Jim Dickson (Dartford)
  • Richard Tice (Boston and Skegness)
  • Alex Baker (Aldershot)
  • Dan Norris (North East Somerset and Hanham)
  • John Slinger (Rugby)
  • Yuan Yang (Earley and Woodley)
  • Lincoln Jopp (Spelthorne)
  • Helen Morgan (North Shropshire)

11.45am: Louise Haigh on £3 bus fare cap

Transport Secretary Louise Haigh has heralded the decision of the government to maintain the bus fare cap, albeit at the higher rate of £3. Haigh said that the government is “stepping in to keep fare affordable and protect services”.

11.40am: Ellie Reeves with sister and Chancellor Rachel ahead of Budget

11.35am: ‘Circles of fiscal hell’

The dire state of public finances is absolutely no secret, with Labour’s core messaging ahead of the Budget revolving around fixing the fiscal black hole left by the Tories.

In a thought-provoking piece on LabourList, Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff Sam White looks at the challenges facing the Chancellor by way of a tour through the circles of hell.

11.30am: What taxes do people want to see increased?

According to pollster Ipsos, 71% of voters think it is likely the government will increase taxes in today’s Budget. Their survey found that those polled were more supportive of raising taxes for higher earners, with 48% backing an income tax increase paid on income over £125,000.

11.25am: Business leaders ‘concerned’ ahead of Budget

New polling from Savanta has found that business leaders are feeling anxious and apprehensive ahead of the Budget this afternoon.

The pollster found that one in four business owners and senior leaders (25%) surveyed felt “concerned” about the Autumn Statement, with a similar number (22%) feeling “apprehensive”. A further 12% said they felt “nervous” ahead of the announcement by Rachel Reeves.

However, one in five (20%) said they felt “positive”, with eight percent feeling “excited”.

Matt McGinn, consultant at Savanta, said: “There’s a real sense of concern among business leaders ahead of Labour’s first Budget in 15 years. Our research suggests that the optimism of summer hasn’t just made way for realism, but some pretty apprehensive company leaders.

“In some ways, this is all unsurprising. Labour and everyone else knew there was a challenging financial settlement to contend with in government, and someone had to pay for it. But Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves will likely be concerned how quickly years of goodwill among businesses appears to have dissipated.”

11.20am: Rachel Reeves leaves No 11

Photo: Kirsty O’Connor / Treasury

11.17am: PM says Budget ‘huge day for Britain’

11.15am: What are MPs looking for from today’s Budget?

Speaking to MPs ahead of today’s Budget, there has been an acknowledgement of the difficult choices set to be unveiled in just over an hour’s time. However, some expressed hope around greater investment in healthcare and efforts to build more homes across the country.

One key message that Downing Street will be keen to follow came from one MP, who said the government need to avoid today’s announcement as an “austerity Budget”.

Read more of their thoughts here

10.50am: Watch the Budget live

10.30am: ‘Labour chooses investment over decline,’ says Reeves

10.10am: Local government’s role in boosting growth

Councils up and down the country have been facing nothing short of a funding emergency in recent years, with several declaring bankruptcy over the financial strain. But Luton council leader Hazel Simmons has written for LabourList about what local government can offer Whitehall when it comes to chasing economic growth – it is well worth a read.

Read more of our Budget 2024 coverage:

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