Budget 2025 Speech

Madame Deputy Speaker.

It is my understanding that the Office for Budget Responsibility's Economic and Fiscal Outlook was released on their website before this statement.

This is deeply disappointing and a serious error on their part. The Office for Budget Responsibility has already made a statement taking full responsibility for their breach.

Madame Deputy Speaker.

We are rebuilding our economy.

Over the last sixteen months, we have overhauled our planning system - to get Britain building;

Forged new trade deals, with the United States, India and the European Union;

Reformed our visa system to bring the brightest and the best to Britain;

We changed our fiscal rules [redacted political content] and raised public investment to its highest level in four decades;

And in last year's Budget, I raised taxes on business and the wealthiest…

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…and we used that money - to fund the biggest ever settlement for our National Health Service.

They were the fair and necessary choices.

And we faced opposition to them.

From opponents to planning reform, who will always demand that the future is built somewhere else, not in their back yard;

Opponents to trade, who want to take us down the path of isolation and division;

Opponents to investment - who believe that the only good thing a government can do is get out of the way;

Opponents who insist that the only way to balance the books is to cut public spending;

And opponents who say that we don't need to balance the books at all.

But we made these choices for a reason.

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Investment, not cuts, to our public services;

Stability for our public finances - the single most important factor in getting the cost of living down;

And economic growth - the best means to improve wages, create jobs, and support public services.

That is what our plan - that is what this government, and our Prime Minister - is all about.

Today's Budget builds on the choices that we have made since last July.

To cut NHS waiting lists.

To cut the cost of living.

And to cut debt and borrowing.

No doubt, we will face opposition again.

But I have yet to see a credible, or a fairer alternative plan for working people.

These are my choices - the right choices for a fairer, a stronger, and more secure Britain.

Madame Deputy Speaker,

I said there would be no return to austerity, and I meant it:

This Budget will maintain investment in our economy and in our National Health Service.

I said I would cut the cost of living, and I meant it:

This Budget will bring down inflation and provide immediate relief for families.

I said I would cut debt and borrowing, and I meant it:

Because of this Budget, borrowing will fall as a share of GDP in every year of this forecast…

…our Net Financial Debt will be lower at the end of the forecast than it is today…

…and I will more than double the headroom against our stability rule to £21.7 billion - meeting our stability rule and meeting it a year early.

These are my choices.

Not austerity.

Not borrowing.

Not turning a blind eye to unfairness.

My choice is a Budget for fair taxes, strong public services, and a stable economy.

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Growth is the engine that carries every one of our ambitions forward.

Through Stability, Investment and Reform -

The platform from which British ambition can finally get moving again.

Because growth doesn't just appear out of thin air.

It is built - patiently, and stubbornly, by the people who take risks,

By founders who bet their savings on an