Spring Statement: The four Labour achievements Reeves will trumpet amid fresh welfare cuts

Rachel Reeves appears set to use her Spring Statement to single out four major achievements of Labour’s first nine months in power, but the positive messaging risks being overshadowed by fresh welfare cuts.

The Chancellor will say she is “proud” of what Labour has delivered “in just nine months”, listing achievements including lower interest rates, increasing NHS funding, and raising the national living wage.

Reeves is widely expected to use the speech to announce sweeping cuts, with The Times reporting that she will announce further welfare cuts to the tune of £500m after the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) told ministers their reforms will save £1.6 billion less than they had projected.

The OBR rejected the Treasury’s welfare savings estimate of £5 billion, the paper reports, instead putting the value of the cuts at £3.4 billion, in what will be a blow to the Chancellor as she struggles with low approval ratings.

In her speech today, Reeves will warn that Britain “has to move quickly in a changing world”.

The full details of her speech are yet to be revealed, but the Treasury included the following four government successes in a press release ahead of the speech:

• “Restoring stability to our public finances”
• “Giving the Bank of England the foundation to cut interest rates three times since the General Election
• “Rebuilding our public services with record investment in our NHS and bringing down waiting lists for 5 months in a row
• “Increasing the National Living Wage to give 3 million people a pay rise from next week”

She will say that Labour was elected to change the UK and to “deliver a decade of national renewal”.

However, it appears the Chancellor has so far failed to convince the public the party is heading in the right direction, with 73% of respondents to a YouGov poll saying that the government is handling the economy badly.

Just 16% believe the government is handling the economy well, with 53% saying that Reeves is doing a bad job as Chancellor – and only 11% answering that she’s doing her job well.

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