Chancellor Rachel Reeves was torn to shreds on Sky News as host Sophie Ridge addressed the looming Autumn Budget.
Rachel Reeves was blasted on Sky News (Image: Getty)
Former Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane took aim at Chancellor Rachel Reeves during his appearance on Sky News this morning alongside host Sophie Ridge. Haldane said the nation had to find a new way of treating the build-up to the budget after official figures showed a higher-than-expected climb in the UK’s unemployment rate to 5 per cent. This was a level not seen since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
Additionally, last week, the Office for National Statistics reported a weaker-than-anticipated forecast for economic growth in the third quarter of the year. During the interview about the upcoming budget, Ridge began: “It’s been a year since the first budget, it feels like a fair time to assess the Chancellor. How do you think she’s done?”
Haldane replied with a scathing takedown: “Listen, it’s been a bad hand, in truth, played pretty poorly.” He added: So mistakes have been made – and repeated mistakes. And the worst of that, I would say, is that it’s repeated mistakes.
“The black hole narrative that you and I discussed a year ago, sucking all energy and light from the economy, has been a mistake repeated this time as well.
“So not enough has been done to give growth a chance to create that stability. It’s only been 16 months since Keir Starmer said he wanted to tread more lightly on our lives. That has singularly not happened. That speculation is proof positive of that.”
He added: “If you speak to businesses, speak to consumers, their fearfulness about where the axe will fall is causing them, not unreasonably, to save rather than spend, not to put their balance sheet to work, and that has taken the legs from beneath growth in the economy.”
Viewers took to X to comment, with one writing: “Correct. They say one thing and do something entirely different.” A second added: “The changes made by Reeves in the last budget have been a disaster. She needs to go.” Meanwhile, another blamed Brexit, penning: “Brexit. The end.”
Another simply said: “Let’s see how she builds on this experience moving forward.”
The Autumn Budget 2025 will be delivered on November 26.
