Spring Statement: everything you need to know – in five minutes

What was meant to be a routine fiscal update quickly turned into an emergency budget. From wiped-out fiscal headroom to downgraded growth forecasts, rising inflation, and record-high tax burdens, Chancellor Rachel Reeves navigated a tightrope of economic pressures and political expectations. In this video, our Economics Editor Michael Simmons breaks down everything you need to know about today's unexpected Spring Statement – in under five minutes.

📈 New monologues on finance, economics, and policy coming soon – subscribe to stay ahead of the curve.#finance #economy #economicgrowth

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[danielbailey]

Guy does an admirable job of never blinking.

[BeeBee]

We can't afford Rachel Reeves, we can't afford Labour. We can't let this mismanagement happen for another 4 years.

[Poorlybobsdad]

I run two businesses. One supplies the public with tradesmen services. The other supplies business with imported parts and machinery. Both are the quietest they have been since Covid. UK recruitment firms are closing or laying off staff. Very telling I think. We desperately need positive messaging and growth, nether of which seems likely in the near future.

[matth]

Excellent summary Spectator.
Let me & "Rachel from accounts" using both the magic money tree & the growth "fairy"!
Fantasy economics from amateurs in Westminster.
At least The Spectator has not been fooled.

[tomk]

Congrats Michael. Looking forward to your insights.

[darranmartin]

No point in working because benefits pays more.

[RalphCorderoy]

Thanks Michael, I'm looking forward to more monologues, the more detailed the better.
But please make the charts as large as possible; they're only 27% of the picture's area.
Yes, I did measure it; I thought you'd appreciate that.
The chart credits The Spectator so perhaps even the top-left SpectatorTV logo could go.

[JustTakeAMoment]

Inflation will be much higher than 3% as commerce applies some fairly hard hitting increases to goods sold. I've seen some products in our lowest cost supermarkets going up by more than 20% and from more than one brand. It's doubtful that inflation will stay below 5% although council tax increases, despite the Labour pledge to freeze council tax this year, has come in on or around 5%.

The real world increases we are seeing are substantially higher than that which is being reported and it seems that by July, we will probably be spending at least another £10 a week on groceries let alone non food shopping.

[stephenchristian-ks]

A complete and utter mess.
This purgatory will be with us for decades.
Amateurs at the very best!

[paulies]

OBR don't know their arse from their elbow

[seewhatifound]

She blames others, Trump, Ukraine, world economic position and the Tories, as if they didnt have to cope with any of that, yet Tories had Trumps first term, the start of the Ukraine war, the world economy plus additionally Covid. . Her excuses get weaker by the day. CPIH for householders today is 3.7% almost twice the BOE target. Shocking 9 months in Government.

[KM-zmkd]

We need to grow the economy but with Labour in power that will never happen. The rich are leaving the country. The poor will be effected again.

[TheCrimsonAvenger]

Increasing Royal funding whilst cutting pensioners heating allowance does not reflect well .

[Xxj-yn]

The OBR seem confused either massaging the figures or they haven't a clue or maybe both?

[lakedistrict]

If we are so poor we can’t give inflation uplifts to disabled people, what are we doing sending £B to Ukraine?

[MartynRogers-nq]

My constructive question is this. Does the Spectator's budget not cover media training? The fixated look at the autocue was off-putting in comparison to the polished performance on YouTube of guys broadcasting from their spare bedrooms.

[Biggest-ev]

The british pensioners are up the creek, the British tax payer is up the creek, the country is up the creek, and the only person with the paddle is on dry land and in parliament……god help us all …..Labour government ……..🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡

[radleysmith]

Rachel's fancy dress hire special Dear Liza outfits this week

[williamvorkosigan]

I hope that the new Economics Editor doesn't think that we should go for Immigration Infinity for fabled growth. I hope he doesn't believe we can borrow infinity with no down side. One hopes that he didn't think it was a good idea to have no cost benefit analysis when considering the virus mandates that bankrupted this nation in order to keep people over average life expectancy going for a further 6 months.

[garymitchell]

Constructive comment - the new guy is awful