Reeves defends Budget as she searches for growth in Davos
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Rachel Reeves said she would not apologise for the Budget but insisted she would like to see taxes come down. The Chancellor said she was “absolutely” relaxed about wealth creation and said the Government wanted to attract the “highest-skilled” immigrants to the UK despite plans to crack down on the overall number of arrivals.
Ms Reeves, who announced £40 billion of tax hikes in her first Budget, said she would like to bring the overall burden down but she could not yet afford to do so and “I’m not going to make promises that I can’t keep”. The Chancellor was speaking at a Bloomberg event in Davos, Switzerland, where the World Economic Forum has attracted business leaders from around the globe.
She has endured a bruising start to 2025, with government borrowing costs and the value of the pound buffeted by market turbulence, weak growth figures and concerns among business leaders about the year ahead. But the Chancellor said: “I’m not going to apologise for the Budget, because although I hear criticism, what I don’t hear is any real alternatives.
“If you’re a CEO or a CFO and you’re coming into a new business, and you’ve got these massive problems with your finances, you have to stabilise them and that requires difficult decisions, but if you don’t make those decisions, you’re going to be plagued by them for years to come.
