Newslinks for Wednesday 11th June 2025

Spending Review 1) Who is getting what?

“Chancellor Rachel Reeves will on Wednesday put a £39bn “affordable housing” plan at the heart of her multiyear UK spending review, as she combines a tight squeeze on day-to-day spending with a £113bn plan to bolster the country’s creaking infrastructure. The Treasury said the £39bn earmarked for affordable homes over 10 years represented “the biggest boost to social and affordable housing investment in a generation”. Reeves’ spending review — the result of months of intense haggling between the Treasury and cabinet ministers — is a pivotal moment for the Labour government, setting departmental budgets and priorities for the coming years and laying the political ground for the next election. But there are growing expectations Reeves could be forced to raise taxes in the autumn, as economic growth remains sluggish and the cost of servicing government debt continues to rise.” – Financial Times

• What will be in the spending review 2025? The winners and losers – The Times
• Huge cash boost for more border cops and drones to snare migrants as Reeves scrambles to cut massive asylum hotel bill – The Sun
• ‘Jam today, pain tomorrow’: why the UK repeatedly overshoots budget forecasts – Financial Times
• The winners and losers of Reeves’s spending review – Daily Telegraph
• Will the Chancellor launch tax raid on the wealthy and how could it work? – Daily Mail
• Leveling up 2.0: Rachel Reeves makes her pitch to Britain’s left-behind voters – Politico

Comment:

• Reeves will aim for optimism but reality paints a different picture – Christian May, CityAM
• The whole truth about moving on from Liz Truss – Daniel Finkelstein, The Times
• If this is a fixed economy, I’d hate to see a broken one – Alex Brummer, Daily Mail
• Rachel Reeves’s economic vision is coming into focus – a year too late – Rafael Behr, The Guardian

> Today: In a haze of political dishonesty almost everyone, until recently, has been living an economic lie

Mel Stride: Voters will get everything from Reeves today – except the truth

> Yesterday: Reeves is playing fast and loose with public finances – just look at her own words

2) Reeves rocked by jobs slump

“Rachel Reeves has been hit by a jobs slump as she prepares to take a gamble on the nation’s finances with a giant spending spree. In a blow that makes a mockery of the Chancellor’s claim to have ‘fixed the foundations’ of the economy, official figures showed a quarter of a million jobs have gone since her tax-raising Budget last year. Experts said it was a ‘painful lesson in basic economics’ for Ms Reeves after she ignored warnings and levied a £25 billion ‘jobs tax’ on National Insurance. The Chancellor will today set out Labour’s spending plans for the rest of the Parliament following a bitter Cabinet battle over how to divide up the proceeds from last year’s Budget. Last night Ms Reeves admitted that voters do not feel like they have more money in their pockets as Labour prepares to mark one year in office. But she claimed that turning on the spending taps would ensure ‘working people all over our country are better off’.” – Daily Mail

• ‘Her challenge is the voters’: Can Rachel Reeves’ spending review rebuild her reputation? – Financial Times

Comment:

• Businesses want just one thing from Rachel Reeves – Shevaun Haviland, Daily Telegraph
• Jobs tax has done serious damage – Rachel Reeves MUST reverse some of it in today’s Spending Review – The Sun says

> Yesterday: Robert Jenrick asks voters “What do you think of Rachel?”

Lord Ashcroft: My latest polling: U-turns on migration and winter fuel, the two child Benefit Cap, and what will Rachel do?

3) NHS still set to fail targets despite budget boost

“The NHS will not come close to hitting Sir Keir Starmer’s waiting list target despite receiving a budget boost of about £30 billion on Wednesday, official modelling shows. Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, will promise the health service an annual real terms increase of 2.8 per cent as she uses her spending review to stake Labour’s re-election pledge on improving the NHS and growing the economy. Starmer’s central promise on the NHS is to hit a routine operations target of treating 92 per cent of patients within 18 weeks, a goal that has not been met for a decade. But The Times understands that internal Department of Health modelling shows that the NHS is on course to hit only about 80 per cent by the end of the parliament. Officials say the figures can only come close to 92 per cent by using “implausible” and “over-optimistic” assumptions.” – The Times

Defence divides, and Chagos continues

“The US Secretary of State has condemned Sir Keir Starmer for imposing sanctions on two Israeli politicians over their government’s war in Gaza. Marco Rubio has criticised Britain and other nations for announcing on Tuesday that they would break with the US and sanction two ultra-nationalist Israeli cabinet ministers. The UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway accused Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich of “inciting violence against the Palestinian people”. Mr Rubio said the sanctions “do not advance US-led efforts to achieve a ceasefire, bring all hostages home and end the war”. He urged the UK “not to forget who the real enemy is”.” – Daily Telegraph

• US urges UK to reverse sanctions on far-right Israeli ministers – The Times
• Starmer’s Chagos ‘surrender’ will fund tax cuts for Mauritians – Daily Telegraph
• Fury as Starmer’s Chagos Islands ‘surrender’ to fund £30bn tax cuts for Mauritians – Daily Express
• Keir Starmer facing calls by UN human rights chiefs to suspend Chagos deal – Daily Express

Comment:

• The sanctions are not about hurting Israel but capitulating to sectarian politics – Stephen Pollard, Daily Telegraph
• Britain’s sanctioning of Israeli ministers is a grave mistake – Jonathan Sacerdoti, The Spectator
• Defence at 5pc or learn to speak Russian? Spasibo, Mr Rutte – Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, Daily Telegraph

News in brief:

• Does David Bull know why people vote Reform? – Tom Jones, The Spectator
• The Net Zero backlash Reform is failing – Rian Chad Whitton, Unherd
• A clean-up job for bullshit politics – Victoria Smith, The Critic
• Ignore the doomsayers, sustainable growth is possible – Tim Gregory, CapX
• ​​I’ve dealt with gangsters and petrol bombs, but Nimbys are a bigger threat to nightlife – Sacha Lord, CityAM