Spring statement 2025 live updates: OBR slashes economic growth forecast as 3m families to be hit by welfare cuts

Rachel Reeves has defended herself over the freebies row by saying she is “not personally a huge Sabrina Carpenter fan, being a 46-year-old woman”.

The chancellor told reporters this afternoon that a member of her family wanted to go to the singer’s concert and “for security reasons” they had to sit in a box.

She insisted that normal seats “would’ve been a lot nicer and easier” for her and her family, but she was advised to take the box.

She admitted: “I do recognise people see it as a bit odd.”

Rachel Reeves has defended her own government’s damning assessment of her welfare cuts.

The government’s own impact assessment said after delivering her spring statement that an estimated quarter of a million people, including 50,000 children, would be pushed into relative poverty by the end of the decade as a result of welfare reforms.

During a press conference this afternoon, the chancellor said: “The quarter of a million people is based on absolutely no one going into work who were previously out of work. And yet we’re putting £1bn in for targeted employment support to get people back to work.

“So I’m confident that our plans far from increasing poverty will actually result in more people having fulfilling work paying a decent wage, to lift themselves and their families out of poverty.”

Rachel Reeves has given an uncertain response as she was quizzed over the prospect of Donald Trump’s tariffs.

As she faced a grilling at a press conference this afternoon, she said: “Tariffs will damage both of our economies.

“We will continue to make the case for free and open trade.

“Let’s see where we get to in the next few weeks.”

Rachel Reeves has had to insist her spring statement was not an “emergency budget”.

When asked by Beth Rigby’s Sky News about her claims the October budget was a “once in a generation”, she insisted today’s announcement was different.

In October the chancellor raised taxes by £40bn, while she announced £14bn in spending cuts today.

But she insisted the spring statement was “far from” an emergency budget.

Rachel Reeves is giving a press conference after delivering her spring statement.

She has faced criticism over the major budget and welfare cuts announced earlier.

In her spring statement, Rachel Reeves played a bad hand as well as anyone could. She pinned the blame for a rethink only four months after her Budget on “increased global uncertainty” and “a world that is changing before our eyes.” That is code for Donald Trump’s tariffs and his forcing Europe to spend more on defence.

Yet the chancellor will not entirely erase the impression that her bigger-than-planned update was caused in part by her decision last October to impose a £25bn tax hit on business, which has surely contributed to the UK’s anaemic growth.

Reeves used to attack Tory austerity as a “failed experiment” and in her Mais lecture a year ago called it a “major failing” which inflicted “severe damage to our social fabric and to our public services.” Now the tables are turned, and the Tories are accusing her of reviving austerity. A bit cheeky given their ideological crusade to shrink the state, but many Labour MPs privately agree.

The Chair of the International Development Committee has condemned the government’s “dangerous hasty” choice to cut aid.

Sarah Champion said: “Today’s statement confirms not only that the Government is committed to reducing aid but that they will do so rapidly. Cuts are already kicking in and will only become more brutal from 2026/27.

“Will teams responsible for delivering aid be able to assess the impact of cuts? Which programmes will be cut, and which groups of people will be left to pick up the pieces?

“Cutting aid to the world’s poorest should not be taken lightly. If the government is committed to this change, I urge it to take more time to consider the full ramifications of dangerously hasty cuts.”

A children’s charity has called on the goverment to rethink its spring statement as 50,000 more children are now “condemned” to a life of poverty by the end of the decade.

Action for Children’s Head of Policy and Research, Julia Pitman, said: “The Government has previously described increases in child poverty since 2010 as ‘shameful’, yet we now know from its own analysis that its cuts to the social security system will condemn 50,000 more children to a life of poverty by the end of the decade.

“We urge ministers to rethink this political choice, which targets the most vulnerable children in society and appears to undermine the government’s promise to ‘turn the tide on child poverty’, with its forthcoming Child Poverty Strategy.”

The head of the Resolution Foundation has said the outlook is “bleak” following the spring statement, predicting that Britain is set for even worse living standards than the austerity of the 2010s.

Ruth Curtice, Chief Executive at the think tank, said: “Having set her new fiscal rules only last autumn, and faced with rising debt interest costs and a weaker outlook for the public finances, Rachel Reeves had little choice but to make a downbeat Spring Statement.

“But while the Chancellor was right to balance the books, she was wrong to do so on the backs of low-to-middle income families, on whom two-thirds of the welfare cuts will fall. Over three million households will be worse off as a result of welfare changes.

“Major cuts to Universal Credit were made so late in the day that the OBR was unable to assess them, suggesting that long-term change is playing second fiddle to short-term savings. This approach to welfare reform that rarely ends well for individuals or the Government.

“The £3.6 billion trimming of departmental spending is a far cry from the austerity of the 2010s. But it is not pain-free either – crucial public services like courts, prisons and local government will feel the strain of reduced funding in the second half of this parliament.

“The government’s welcome ambition to kickstart growth got closer to reality today, with planning reforms set to boost GDP in the coming years. But the outlook still looks bleak. Much has been made of the living standards pain Britain experienced during the 2010s, but the 2020s are still on track to be even worse.”