UK politics live: Reeves warned more cuts would be ‘political suicide’ as pressure builds over market turmoil Chancellor to address parliament as economic pressure mounts over cost of borrowing and falling pound.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been warned that imposing public spending cuts would be “political suicide”, after the Treasury vowed to be “ruthless” in seeking to quell the current economic turmoil.
In a bid to calm the markets, as the rise in gilt yields eviscerates the £9bn of “headroom” left in the chancellor’s Budget, leaving her at risk of breaking her fiscal rules, Ms Reeves was reportedly ordering cabinet ministers to be “ruthless” in identifying public spending cuts.
But former Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell warned on Tuesday morning that further spending cuts would amount to “political suicide” and risked turning an economic “crisis into a recession” by taking demand out of the economy.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to make a statement in the Commons, as she returns from her trip to China to face a wave of growing economic unease.
