Rachel Reeves’s pre-Budget speech ridiculed by the opposition
4th November 2025
Leader of the opposition Kemi Badenoch once again called for the family farm tax to be scrapped and took a swipe at the chancellor’s “laundry list of excuses” ahead of the next Autumn Budget.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been criticised for “panicking” and adding further confusion for businesses ahead of the Budget on 26th November, as she delivered a ‘scene setting’ speech this morning.
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch took a savage swipe at the chancellor, calling the speech “one long waffle bomb” and a “laundry list of excuses”.
Meanwhile, shadow chancellor Mel Stride said Reeves had “made an emergency speech because she is panicking about the speculation she has fuelled”.
He added: “But all she’s done is confirm the fears of households and businesses – that tax rises are coming. The chancellor claims she fixed the public finances last year. If that was true, she would not be rolling the pitch for more tax rises and broken promises.”
The shadow chancellor concluded by saying that if Reeves breaks her promises on not raising taxes: “She must go”.
What did we learn from Reeves’ speech?
In her speech ahead of the Budget on 26th November, Reeves acknowledged the recent speculation that has been circulating in recent weeks.
She claimed that last year’s Budget “put the public finances back on a firm footing” and “provided an urgent cash injection into our faltering public services”, but since then “the world has thrown even more challenges our way”.
She listed the threat of tariffs, volatile supply chains keeping the cost of everyday essentials high, and pressure to increase defence spending, as being among the challenges.
Reeves said: “The choices I make in the Budget this month will be focused on getting inflation falling and creating the conditions for interest rate cuts to support economic growth and improve the cost of living.”
She defended her changes to the fiscal rules in last year’s Budget, adding that additional investment can only be delivered if markets know that her commitment to those rules is “ironclad”.
“In the Budget and beyond, I will continue to drive for more productive and more efficient public services, right across government, making savings and rooting out waste wherever I find it,” she added.
Reeves claimed her Budget will “deliver on the priorities of the British people” – NHS waiting lists, national debt and the cost of living.
The chancellor did not re-commit to Labour’s former election pledge not to raise taxes.
“Mine will be a Budget for growth with fairness at its heart, and a Budget that supports businesses – to create jobs and to innovate.
“As I take my decisions on both tax and spend I will do what is necessary to protect families from high inflation and interest rates to protect our public services from a return to austerity and to ensure that the economy that we hand down to future generations is secure, with debt under control.”
Rachel Reeves has made an emergency speech because she is panicking about the speculation she has fuelled. But all she’s done is confirm the fears of households and businesses – that tax rises are coming.
— Mel Stride (@MelJStride) November 4, 2025
The Chancellor claims she fixed the public finances last year. If that was… https://t.co/BPuGFgvMpB
“Everywhere you look, people are being punished”
Kemi Badenoch renewed her calls to scrap the family farm tax, announced at last year’s Budget, and hit back at the chancellor’s speech.
“Everywhere you look, the people who keep this country going feel like they are being punished, not rewarded, for doing the right thing. Sole traders, family businesses, family farms – we see many people paying insane rates of marginal tax.
“A third of hospitality businesses are trading at below break-even.”
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She added: “This morning, we saw the extraordinary spectacle of a chancellor just days before a Budget, rushed into a panicked speech. We were told this was the great moment when Labour would show they had a plan for growth; instead what we got was a masterclass in managed decline.
“A chancellor claiming she was just going to set the context but instead of clarity, business leaders are none the wiser. […]
“The chancellor’s speech was one long waffle bomb, a laundry list of excuses. She blamed absolutely everybody else for her own choices, her own decisions, her own failures.”
She criticised the government’s decision to raise employer contributions to national insurance last year, saying it forced businesses to raise their prices, cut jobs or close.
The Budget is an opportunity for Reeves to fix these issues, make savings and take pressure off the public and businesses, Badenock said. “But this morning we saw she’s given up trying.”
LIVE: I set out the Conservatives’ plan to get Britain working again https://t.co/xso6cItAnL
— Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) November 4, 2025
Reeves’s next Budget is due to be released on 26th November.
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