Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said there were too many unauthorised leaks ahead of her Budget last month.The amount of media stories about what might in her statement led to criticism from Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, who labelled it the “hokey-cokey Budget,” telling MPs “one minute it’s in, the next minute it’s out”. The source of the leaks, particularly one made to the Financial Times on 13 November suggesting the Chancellor had dropped plans to increase income tax, is now being investigated.Giving evidence to the Treasury select committee, Reeves told MPs that she had taken the step because the leaks were “very damaging” and “we cannot allow this to happen again”.Shortly before she delivered her Budget speech on 26 November, its contents were accidentally published by the government’s tax and spending watchdog the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).But in the weeks leading up the Budget a series of Budget measures – including a pay-per-mile levy on electric vehicles and a tourist tax – were briefed to journalists.A downgrade of UK productivity from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), and a plan to raise income tax rates, that appeared to be later abandoned, were also floated in the media.Reeves said: “The budget had too much speculation, there were too many leaks, and much of those leaks and speculation were inaccurate, very damaging…”I want to state on the record how frustrated I am and have been by these incidents and the volume of speculation an …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnChancellor Rachel Reeves has said there were too many unauthorised leaks ahead of her Budget last month.The amount of media stories about what might in her statement led to criticism from Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, who labelled it the “hokey-cokey Budget,” telling MPs “one minute it’s in, the next minute it’s out”. The source of the leaks, particularly one made to the Financial Times on 13 November suggesting the Chancellor had dropped plans to increase income tax, is now being investigated.Giving evidence to the Treasury select committee, Reeves told MPs that she had taken the step because the leaks were “very damaging” and “we cannot allow this to happen again”.Shortly before she delivered her Budget speech on 26 November, its contents were accidentally published by the government’s tax and spending watchdog the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).But in the weeks leading up the Budget a series of Budget measures – including a pay-per-mile levy on electric vehicles and a tourist tax – were briefed to journalists.A downgrade of UK productivity from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), and a plan to raise income tax rates, that appeared to be later abandoned, were also floated in the media.Reeves said: “The budget had too much speculation, there were too many leaks, and much of those leaks and speculation were inaccurate, very damaging…”I want to state on the record how frustrated I am and have been by these incidents and the volume of speculation an …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
