Chancellor Rachel Reeves is facing calls to resign over the way she presented her fiscal event to the country
She is under increasing pressure over the way she has presented her budget, and the tax rises that were contained within it.
This has led to accusations she lied to the country.
Asked by Trevor if this is the case, the chancellor initially does not address the question, and instead starts talking about child poverty.
Pushed by Trevor, Reeves says “of course I didn’t” lie.
She also confirms that the prime minister was kept up to date on what she was doing throughout the budget process.
The chancellor is also asked if what she said last year – that she wouldn’t have a similar tax-raising budget again – was also untrue.discussion around the reasons and justifications for the tax rises.
The chancellor makes the point that by increasing the “headroom” – the buffer against spending pledges in case the situation changes – she will bring inflation down and therefore interest rates and mortgages.
Increasing the headroom to north of £20bn from around £9bn took up the lion’s share of the tax rises announced on Wednesday.
Pushed by Trevor on why this is not the argument she made at the despatch box.
Reeves insisted she said in the pre-budget speech that she wanted to increase the headroom.Lifting two-child benefit cap about poverty, not appeasing party Reeves says
Trevor Phillips and Rachel Reeves are getting into a discussion into the chancellor’s decision to raise the two-child benefit cap.
This measure, which cost around £3bn per year, was a demand of the Labour backbenchers and something the government said it could not afford last year.
The chancellor is insistent that this decision was made to reduce child poverty.
“Look, I’m a Labour chancellor. I want to reduce child poverty. I make no apologies for that,” Reeves says.
When Trevor asks why a woman with two children should pay to support the children of another woman who has more than two, Reeves again speaks about wanting to reduce child poverty.
She also states that she’d rather talk about families than women when it comes to parenting children.
The chancellor says she is a “mum with two children”, and she is “very happy to support children from poorer backgrounds live more fulfilling lives”.
“When I became chancellor, I said that I knew that my time as chancellor would have been a success if there are ordinary children from working-class backgrounds living more fulfilling lives, and I think it is very difficult to live a fulfilling life when you’re growing up in poverty,” she adds.
Reeves also points to how she is raising gambling taxes, although Trevor notes that income from tax is not ring-fenced, and more will be taken from income tax due to the freezing of thresholds.
The chancellor then argues the two-child benefit needs to be scrapped to get rid of the rape clause, that forced parents of nonconsensual children to prove they were the consequence of rape to get benefits for them past the two-child cap.
Trevor says that this is not the case for most of the children who will benefit from the cap being lifted.
He points to polling that shows only 37% of Labour voters back the cap being lifted – but more than 80% of Labour members do, and puts the case to Reeves that she is just appeasing her own party.
Again, Reeves makes the argument the decision is about lifting children out of poverty.
Kemi Badenoch is asked about the lifting of the two-child benefit cap, which she opposes.
She tells Trevor that her argument is not about wanting children to be in poverty, but rather that the country cannot afford the current spending plans.
The Tory leader says: “We are at a point where the rider is getting heavier than the horse.”
Pushed by Trevor about why she opposes lifting children out of poverty, Badenoch says: “That is not the chancellor’s job.
“That was not what she’s supposed to be doing.
“Benefits are supposed to be a safety net.
“They’re not supposed to make you middle class.”
The leader of the opposition argues that growth is needed in the economy – and it is not clear that this will be helped by lifting the two-child cap.
Badenoch also calls for a reduction in the welfare bill, including around mental health benefits.
