The £40 billion gamble

The student protests that have rocked France for weeks reached a crescendo this week, when more than 250,000 teenagers, parents, teachers and union leaders took to the streets to voice their anger over dilapidated school buildings, staff shortages and complicated timetables. Some ...  Show more

Kemi Badenoch's attack on Reform UK was all about character and her attack on Labour was all about economics. In her speech at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, she said she would to scrap inheritance tax on family homes and that under a Conservative government, co ...  Show more

Rachel Reeves’s first budget as chancellor of the exchequer saw the biggest tax rises in decades, as well as promi ...

Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves reacts, after the government announces tax rises and a spending squeeze, as well as money for schools and the NHS.She’s also quizzed on what her party would do differently.Following her, host of Radio 4’s Money Box Live Adam Shaw, with mat ...  Show more

UK chancellor Rachel Reeves has had an action-packed week. She made a U-turn on winter fuel payments, announced plans to spend billions of pounds on new transport schemes and, following the prime minister’s latest announcement, she now has to find yet more money to fund a rise in ...  Show more

The chancellor Rachel Reeves is about to confront the British public with the size of the black hole in the country’s finances. A funding shortfall of about £20bn is likely to lead to tax rises at the Budget later this year. So — how to fix the problem? The FT ...