Rachel Reeves is damned if she raises income tax in the budget – and damned if she doesn’t | Martin Kettle

<p>The only way the chancellor can save herself is to lower living costs or make big improvements to public services. Farage waits in the wings if not</p><p>It may not feel that way, but these are pivotal weeks in modern British, and perhaps also modern European, politics. I do not know whether the ink is yet dry on the final draft of Rachel Reeves’s 26 November budget, let alone know what measures it will contain. But I do know that this budget matters more than any other in recent times.</p><p>Reeves would not have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/nov/04/rachel-reeves-avoids-ruling-out-tax-rises-as-autumn-budget-looms">made her Downing Street speech</a> on Tuesday simply to trail a business-as-usual package. The inevitable inference is that she plans a moment of enforced but necessary departure from tradition. The outcome, whether success or failure, will surely reshape politics for years to come.</p><p>Martin Kettle is a Guardian columnist</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/06/rachel-reeves-income-tax-budget-chancellor-living-costs">Continue reading...</a>