That's it from us today, as our attention turns to Wednesday's Budget announcement.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves will be delivering a statement to the House of Commons from at 12:30 GMT, which will be followed by the customary reaction from opposition parties and economic think tanks.

All the while, we'll be doing what we do best - bringing you live updates, videos and analysis as the day unfolds.

Set your reminders now and see you then.

Today's page was edited by Jacqueline Howard, Nathan Williams, Barbara Tasch and Emily Atkinson. The writers were Imogen James, Rachel Flynn, Thomas Copeland, Rorey Bosotti and Hollie Cole.

Image source, PA Media

• Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the Budget will shed a "harsh light" on the state of the British economy
• Chancellor Rachel Reeves will announce a £240m investment for public services, Starmer said, adding that his government will clamp down on government waste and tax avoidance
• Starmer said the new measures will prevent "devastating austerity", accusing the Conservatives of running away from the crisis plaguing public services during their tenure
• The PM said the £2 cap on bus fares will end and a new £3 limit will be introduced. Shadow Transport Secretary Helen Whately has criticised this decision, claiming "that's £10 a week extra to get to work under Labour"
• The prime minister added he couldn't guarantee there wouldn't be tax increases after the Budget, insisting "fixing the foundations" of the country is the priority

The Liberal Democrats' environment spokesman Tim Farron says that an increase to the bus fare cap "is, without a doubt, a bus tax".

Keir Starmer announced today that the bus fare cap in England would increase from £2 to £3 in this Wednesday's Budget.

"The fundamental issue that neither Labour nor the Conservatives before them seemed to understand is that for rural communities, it doesn’t matter if the cap is £2 or £3 if they don’t have a bus service in the first place," Farron says.

Kirk England
Environment & Tourism Correspondent, BBC South West

A Devon pub landlord is "nervous" that changes to business rates relief in the government's Budget on Wednesday could cost him £24,000 a year.

Business rates relief was introduced for pubs, restaurants, bars and cafes in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, but is set to run out in April 2025.

Dan Cocks, who runs the Edgcumbe Arms at Cremyll, said losing the support would cost him £2,000 a month and would be "the straw that breaks the camel's back" for his business.

Ahead of the Budget, the Treasury said it was "supporting businesses" and had pledged to make the "business rates system fairer".

Currently, eligible businesses can get 75% off their rates bills up to a maximum of £110,000 a year.

Cocks said the potential for losing the support had made him "very nervous" as the money to replace it was "not there."

• You can continue reading this story here

Image source, EPA

Co-leader of the Green Party and MP for Bristol Central, Carla Denyer, says the increase to the bus fare cap from £2 to £3 will be a "blow for everyone who relies on buses in the cost of living crisis."

"This is the wrong approach," she says in a post on X, adding that the "government should be supporting our economy and environment by making it easier to get around without at car".

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said earlier today that the new measure will be announced in Wednesday's Budget, making a case that the Tories only funded the capped fare to the end of 2024.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer promised to prevent "devastating austerity" in his pre-Budget speech this morning, a word we hear a lot in British politics.

But what exactly is austerity?

In 2010, the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government embarked on a programme of deep spending cuts and tax increases.

It was aimed at reducing the country's massive deficit - where it was spending much more money than it was raising in taxes - after it bailed out banks during the 2008 financial crisis.

Former chancellor George Osborne and his successors made more than £30bn in spending reductions to welfare payments, housing subsidies and social services, during what was known as the austerity years.

As a result, many departments still have less spending power now than they had before 2010.

In short?

It's a set of economic measures aimed at reducing public sector debt through a combination of:

• reducing spending - by doing things like cutting public services
• raising taxes

Image source, EPA

Jeremy Corbyn, former Labour leader and independent MP for Islington North, says the government's decision to scrap the £2 bus fare cap is a "disgraceful decision".

In a post on X, he writes the move will "harm the poorest in society, and discourage public transport at a time when it is needed more than ever".

He adds: "Why is the government punishing people for trying to get to work?"

On Wednesday, the UK will find out what Labour plans to do with its first Budget in 14 years.

Every year the chancellor, who is in charge of the government's finances, makes a Budget statement to MPs in the House of Commons.

Alongside this the Treasury publishes a report giving more details about the measures announced and what they will cost.

MPs will spend several days debating the plans and are then asked to approve the proposals to turn it into law.

The Budget outlines the government's plans for raising or lowering taxes. It also includes big decisions about spending on things like health, schools, police and other public services.

Labour has repeatedly said that it needs to make difficult financial decisions.

Government sources have told the BBC this Budget could include tax rises and spending cuts to the value of £40bn.

Image source, pa

Chair of the Labour Party Ellie Reeves is defending the £3 cap on bus fares announced by Keir Starmer today.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's World at One programme, Reeves says the current £2 cap was put in place by the previous government and only funded to the end of this year.

That means there would have been no cap at all beyond that, she explains.

Asked why the rise, Reeves draws it into the bigger picture that Labour has detailed about the poor state of the country's finances left behind by the Conservatives.

Starmer calls out Tory spending - but why not before the election?published at 13:57 Greenwich Mean Time 28 October

13:57 GMT 28 October

Faisal Islam
Economics editor

Image source, Reuters

The PM made a conscious argument for tax rises to fund broken public services, especially in the NHS.

There were similarities with speeches made by Gordon Brown justifying an NI increase to fund the health service in 2002.

The wider point here is that the PM said this Budget will deal with the so-called “fiscal fiction” of spending plans under the Conservatives, who he said pencilled in spending on public services that could never be delivered.

"We’re not going to continue the fiction, the pretence you can always have lower taxes, and run your public services properly - it’s completely and utterly untrue,” the PM said.

There is a reasonable question about why this argument was not made more clearly ahead of the election.

This is why the row between Jeremy Hunt and the OBR is important.

The OBR’s review of the spending information given to it by Hunt’s Treasury at the last Budget will be revealed on Wednesday.

Hunt expects it will implicitly criticise the assumptions made, underpinning the idea of a “black hole” in the public finances, and he has called out the timing of this review as a “political intervention”.

Nick Grey, chief executive of Gtech, a company making domestic appliances which he started in his garage, says he is "terrified" after Keir Starmer's speech.

Speaking on BBC News, Grey adds he does not understand how Starmer thinks his proposals will "stabilise the economy".

The only thing that can pay for services is "businesses making some money and paying tax," he says.

He says putting all the load onto businesses with high taxes is "terrifying", and putting the tax up on businesses when they are "already struggling" makes no sense.

Grey also says he thinks he is a working person, he works every day, but he thinks the prime minister wouldn't count him as one.

He says the government is "stealing from the population by overspending".

"The only way to really pay for services is by the economy growing," Grey adds.

We're starting to see some reactions from Tories to Keir Starmer's announcement that the £2 cap on bus fares will be scrapped and a new £3 limit introduced.

Robert Jenrick, the Conservative leadership hopeful, describes the decision as "clueless" in a post on X.

"Starmer must think people who get the bus aren’t working people," he says.

While Shadow Transport Secretary and Conservative MP for Faversham and Mid Kent, Helen Whately, says, "that's £10 a week extra to get to work under Labour".

"Clearly bus users don't count as 'working people' either," she adds.

"This Budget will help to get Britain working," the PM says on X, following his pre-Budget speech.

"It will pave the way for reforms that tackle the root causes of economic inactivity, so those who can work, will work," he adds.

We've just heard from Prime Minister Keir Starmer as he laid the groundwork for Wednesday's Budget.

Here are some of the most important snippets from his speech:

• The PM starts by saying the Budget will shed a "harsh light" on the state of the British economy and that the government will stick to the pledge of returning the country to the service of working people
• As part of the plans, Starmer says Chancellor Rachel Reeves will announce a £240 million investment for public services
• The prime minister also hails the Budget as a "moment of pride" for the UK as he highlights Reeves will be the first woman to deliver it

• Starmer says the new measures will prevent "devastating austerity" as he accuses the Conservatives of running away from the crisis plaguing public services during their tenure
• Starmer adds his government will beruthless in clamping down on government waste and tax avoidance, adding "every penny counts"
• He also confirms the £2 cap on bus fares will end but notes a new £3 limit is going to be introduced
• The prime minister adds he can't guarantee more tax increases won't come after the Budget as he insists "fixing the foundations" of the country is the priority

Do taxes always rise after elections?published at 12:47 Greenwich Mean Time 28 October

12:47 GMT 28 October

By Gerry Georgieva

If Rachel Reeves raises taxes in her first Budget on Wednesday it should come as no great surprise because every election since 1992 has been followed by tax rises, apart from 2017.

According to Gemma Tetlow, chief economist at the Institute for Government, this has happened “even in cases where the party elected had not mentioned this in its manifesto”.

She cites the 2002 increase in National Insurance contributions - which wasn’t mentioned in Labour’s 2001 manifesto, and VAT increases in 1993 and 2010 that weren’t in the Conservative manifestos.

This is partly because elections are also usually followed by multi-year spending reviews, and what is in the first Budget has a big impact on what a new government can spend on its priorities.

Speaking in the West Midlands, Sir Keir Starmer stressed that working people are the "golden thread" that runs through his government's agenda.

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Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent

After Sir Keir Starmer’s speech we now know a little more about what will be in the Budget.

The prime minister took the somewhat unusual step of confirming rumours that the £2 cap on bus fares in many areas of England would be scrapped, as planned under existing spending plans, and replaced by a new £3 cap.

Most of the other things we learnt from the speech were more impressionistic than concrete, but still significant.

Starmer promised to “prevent devastating austerity” in public spending. He pointed out that, unlike New Labour entering government from opposition in 1997, he had never promised to stick to Conservative spending plans. In essence what he was saying here was that yes, some taxes would go up, but for the purpose of spending more on public services. That is a clear political choice which is becoming clearer with every comment and briefing in advance of the Budget.

The prime minister also maintained his rhetoric about “working people” despite the difficulties he and other ministers have got into producing a definition of the term.

Starmer made clear he has little time for those definitional disputes, saying that “the working people of this country know exactly who they are”.

If they do, the question after Wednesday’s Budget is whether they feel the choices the prime minister has made on tax are a fair trade for more spending on public services.

The Express and Star ask the prime minister about investment. They ask what would he say to give confidence to small business owners.

Starmer says they are the "backbone" of the country and the economy, and therefore it is "important" they take steps to "make it easier" for small businesses to operate.

He thanks the audience, and then leaves the stage.

A journalist from LBC brings up a comment Starmer made earlier about people judging the government on whether they feel better off in five years.

He asks if that's how long it will take for things to improve.

Starmer answers with a sharp no, saying that the country is already seeing more investment.