LONDON — (AP) — British Treasury chief Rachel Reeves raised taxes Wednesday by around 40 billion pounds ($52 billion) to plug a hole she claims to have identified in the public finances and fund the U.K.’s cash-starved public services, in a beefy budget that could set the political tone for years to come.
In the Labour Party’s first budget since regaining power after 14 years in July, Reeves also changed the U.K.’s debt rules — a move that will allow the government to borrow more to, as she explained, “invest, invest, invest,” but which opposition figures described as a “fiddling of the books.”
Her biggest cash commitment was an additional 25 billion pounds for the cherished National Health Service, which has seen waiting lists rise to record levels in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The choices that I have made today are the right choices for our country,” Reeves at the end …