Tommy Lumby
BBC business data journalist

The pound continued to fall against the dollar after Reeves’ speech and remains at levels last seen more than six months ago, as the chart below shows.

However, analysts say this is partly to do with the dollar’s rising value.

Key measures of UK government borrowing costs also fell after the Chancellor took to the lectern but have since risen slightly above their position pre-speech.

Speaking to Radio 4, Luke Hickmore of Aberdeen Investments said bond markets, where the government borrows, were “laser-focused on costs coming down and revenue rising”.

He said the markets would take “comfort” from hints of tax rises but added that Reeves hadn’t said as much about plans to cut costs.

What would tax rises mean for Scotland?published at 11:22 GMT

11:22 GMT

Douglas Fraser
Business and economy editor, BBC Scotland

If taxes are on the way up, how would that play differently in Scotland, with some taxes devolved but most of them still controlled from Westminster?

If it's VAT or National Insurance being changed, that would apply in Scotland and across the UK. But income tax is different. Westminster only controls the personal allowance for income tax, which is the same as the starting threshold.

There are five income tax bands in Scotland. Thresholds for those bands and rates of income tax at each band are for the Scottish government to set. For above average earners, they're currently higher than the rest of the UK.

So, if there's to be a rise in Westminster income tax rates, that can be expected to bring in more revenue (though that's not guaranteed). The Treasury then adjusts the block grant it pays Holyrood, by calculating the amount of tax it would have raised if it still collected income tax from Scots.

If it would have raised more tax as a result of a Rachel Reeves tax increase, that deduction gets bigger. Shona Robison, the Scottish finance secretary, would therefore have a smaller block grant.

To replace the bigger hole in the Scottish budget, she would have to increase tax by roughly the same amount by which it's been reduced.

Which taxes could Reeves put up?published at 11:10 GMT

11:10 GMT

By Anthony Reuben

It seems likely from this morning’s speech that Chancellor Rachel Reeves is planning to raise taxes, but she carefully avoided giving any details about which ones could go up.

Her problem is that if she needs to raise substantial amounts of money the easiest way to do so would be to increase one of the big revenue raisers: income tax, National Insurance or VAT - but Labour’s general election manifesto last year promised not to do that.

Putting 1p on the basic rate of income tax, for example, would raise £7bn or £8bn a year, according to the government’s calculations, external. Putting 1p on the higher rate would raise about £2bn a year.

If the chancellor is ignoring the three biggest revenue raisers the next four biggest are corporation tax, council tax, business rates and fuel duties.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank said, external that raising tens of billions of pounds in taxes without breaking Labour’s manifesto pledges would be “difficult, but not impossible”. But it warned that “many of the tax-raising options outside the ‘big three’ would have particularly damaging effects on growth and welfare”.

How do UK death rates and debt compare to other countries post-pandemic?published at 11:05 GMT

11:05 GMT

By Nicholas Barrett

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said in her Downing Street speech this morning that “after the pandemic the UK had higher death rates and higher debts than its peers”.

Analysis by the BBC has shown that in the three years to February 2023, the rate of deaths in the UK went up by more than 5%, which was more than France, Germany and Spain - all up between 3% and 4.5% - but less than Italy's figure of more than 6%.

The US and eastern European countries like Poland were harder hit with death rates more than 10% above their pre-pandemic levels.

The King, external’, externals Fund think tank has said, external “excess mortality in the UK during the pandemic exceeded that of most comparable western European countries”.

According to the International Monetary Fund, external by 2022 the UK’s debt amounted to 99.6% of GDP. At the time, this was lower than France (111%), Italy (138%) and Japan (248%).

In fact, with the exception of Germany (64%), the UK’s debt as a percentage of GDP was lower than all other G7 countries at the end of the pandemic.

We've been hearing from readers about how they think the Budget could affect them.

Matt Cooper, who runs a small business that provides educational courses on mountain safety, says that every time he switches on the news it seems there's another tax on the public which is making it tough for companies like his.

"More tax rises will halt my plan of growth," he says.

"I'm not a Conservative voter, but it felt like the economy was in better hands before, as it just feels like there's new taxes all the time."

As a reminder, you can get in touch with us about how you think Reeves's Budget plans might affect you.

Key economic points from the chancellor’s speechpublished at 10:47 GMT

10:47 GMT

Faisal Islam
Economics editor

Away from speculation about tax rises, there were some important economic points in the chancellor’s speech.

First, while respecting the Bank of England, she seemed to push the case for further rate cuts.

“Interest rates... have now been cut five times, but at 4% they are still a constraint on business borrowing and a burden on family finances,” she said.

In an already unusual speech, to do this two days before the Bank decides on rates is noteworthy.

The chancellor is sensitive to the independence of Britain’s economic institutions, and she said her Budget will focus on getting inflation down, to help create “the conditions for interest rate cuts to support economic growth and improve the cost of living.”

The Bank is not widely expected to cut on Thursday, but they will consider the case. A cut in December is looking more likely.

She also confirmed that the change to the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) assumptions about Britain’s long term economic performance, measured by economic output per hour worked, or productivity, would be the biggest single moving part in the Budget maths.

As we’ve previously reported, a downgrade to the UK's productivity performance from the government's official forecaster could lead to the chancellor facing a £20bn hole in government finances.

We can bring you a bit more from Kemi Badenoch now, who's just called Reeves' pre-Budget speech "a laundry list of excuses".

She accuses Reeves of delivering "a masterclass in managed decline" that left business leaders and investors "confused" because "Labour doesn't have a plan to get Britain working".

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch is responding to Rachel Reeves' speech now, calling it "one long waffle bomb".

"The chancellor's speech was one long waffle bomb, a laundry list of excuses. She blamed everybody else for her own choices, her own decisions, her own failures," she says.

The chancellor's speech is clear: "don't bother" living within your means "because the government won't".

The Budget is an "opportunity to fix this", to make savings and take the pressure of all of us, says Badenoch.

Image source, Reuters

We're starting to get some reaction through now to Rachel Reeves' pre-Budget speech.

Tory shadow chancellor Mel Stride calls it an "emergency speech from a chancellor panicking about the speculation she has fuelled".

The speech has confirmed "the fears of households and businesses - that tax rises are coming." He adds that if Reeves "breaks her promise and hikes taxes again, she must go."

We've also heard from Daisy Cooper, Treasury spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats and the party's deputy leader: "That wasn't pitch rolling, it was pointless".

"This Budget will be a bitter pill to swallow," she says, adding that "the government seems to have run out of excuses".

Can the cost of living go down while taxes go up?published at 09:38 GMT

09:38 GMT

Kevin Peachey
Cost of living correspondent

Reeves’ talk of productivity and national debt might not cut through to people worried about the cost of the supermarket shop and their winter energy bill.

The prospect of tax rises and the promise of cutting the cost of living certainly will. But how can she do both?

There were no specifics in this speech. But the chancellor gave plenty of hints – how “each of us must do their bit”, and how she wants to bring down the rate of inflation to pave the way for interest rate cuts.

The detail, she says, will come in the Budget. Which groups of people will be targeted with each policy will be key.

In other words, who will take the hit and who will get the benefit? In truth, we don’t yet know.

But it is not simple. For example, cutting VAT on energy bills would help family budgets. Some vulnerable people who have to stay at home with the heating on would benefit more, but so would richer people with bigger homes.

Image source, PA Media

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has - in her words - set the "context" for widely anticipated tax rises in her 26 November Budget by listing the challenges facing the UK economy, while pledging to prioritise national interest over "political expediency".

Just catching up? Here's what you need to know:

• Are taxes going up? Reeves consistently refused to rule this out, or detail which taxes might rise and by how much. As our chief political correspondent Henry Zeffman points out: "If there was any glimmer of doubt about tax rises before this speech, there isn't now"
• 'A growth Budget, with fairness at its heart'. Instead, Reeves said she was refusing to sweep economic pressures "under the carpet", and repeatedly pledged to hit those key Labour priorities: cutting NHS waiting lists, national debt and the cost of living
• 'Each of us must do our bit'. We all have contribute if we want to overhaul the country's economic health, the chancellor argued - fuelling speculation that Labour will break its manifesto pledge not to raise income tax
• Tories and global shocks take blame: In illustrating the gloomy economic picture in the UK, Reeves went several times for the policies of the previous Tory government. She also said that, since the last Budget, the world has "thrown more challenges our way", including tariffs and lingering inflation
• A warning: She also urged against over-reliance on borrowing, saying government debt stood at £2.6tn - or 94% of the national income

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What did we learn from Reeves's speech?published at 09:06 GMT

09:06 GMT

Dharshini David
Deputy economics editor

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

Rachel Reeves pinned the need for forthcoming tax rises on the actions of previous governments – post-Brexit trading arrangements, austerity – as underlying a disappointing assessment by the official forecasters of the economy’s potential.

And other external forces - tariffs and supply chain disruption – for the underwhelming performance of growth and inflation.

But some of these were foreseeable, and the trade war, for example, is expected to have a very marginal impact on growth.

Economists say that the chancellor may need tax rises totalling some £30bn to meet her financial rules by a comfortable margin.

Reeves accused past Conservative governments of prioritising political convenience but her fiscal position also reflects similar actions by her own government. The public purse is having to find several billions of pounds to fund U-turns over welfare and winter fuel payments.

And analysts - including those at the Bank of England - also point to the chancellor's own tax rises in last year’s Budget as hindering growth and employment, and adding to inflation pressures this year.

The chancellor met her financial rules by only a slim margin last year. That was always risky, and the gamble didn’t pay off – but it can’t just be blamed on ill-winds from elsewhere.

Reeves's argument? It falls to her to confront decisions ducked by predecessorspublished at 09:01 GMT

09:01 GMT

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent, reporting from Downing Street

Taxes are going up.

If there was any glimmer of doubt about that before this speech, there isn’t now.

Yet Rachel Reeves repeatedly refused to get into the specifics of which taxes might go up.

So, what was the purpose of this speech?

It was to begin the work of explaining why a year after delivering a tax-raising Budget and vowing not to come back for more, the chancellor is in fact coming back for more.

The answers the chancellor gave were varied: poor productivity, for which she blamed Conservative government policy including Brexit; austerity and short-sighted decisions to cut infrastructure spending; persistently high global inflation; and the uncertainty unleashed by Donald Trump’s tariffs.

In short, Reeves's argument is that the failings of others are being visited upon this government, and that it falls to her to confront decisions her predecessors ducked.

The risk is that some voters will consider many of those issues to have been easily foreseeable when this government won an election on a prospectus of not increasing taxes.

Reeves argues that given where the UK finds itself now, she must do what is right not what is popular. But to state the obvious, it’s not generally a recipe for political success for an unpopular government three weeks before a Budget to be openly entertaining doing unpopular things.

Up next is the BBC's political editor Chris Mason, who asks if the government is set to break its manifesto promise not to increase income tax.

Reeves says specific policy choices will be set out on 26 November, when she delivers the Budget to MPs.

She says that she "wants people to understand" both the challenges she faces, and how she will tackle these challenges.

"The easy thing to do would be to cut investment" she says, but those kinds of decisions "are the reason we have such low productivity today".

Image source, Reuters

A reporter for Channel 4 News asks the chancellor if she should have been clearer with people at the time of the election that she would need to put up taxes.

He says concerns around the productivity assessments from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) - the official forecaster - have been around for years.

Reeves says she raised taxes at last year at the Budget to "fill the £22bn black hole" inherited from the Tories.

"I have respect for independent economic institutions," whether it's the Bank of England or the OBR, she adds.

ITV News's Robert Peston asks Reeves to respond to widespread speculation that taxes will rise for "millions of people, including working people" at the Budget on 26 November.

Today is not about setting out choices, Reeves repeats.

Instead, she says she wants people to understand the circumstances the country is in. There are "great opportunities" for the country, she says, but also "big challenges".

Reeves says she will not "sweep these under the carpet" like previous governments.

Let's rewind now to some of the questions out to the chancellor by the press troupe in Downing Street.

Sky News's political editor Beth Rigby is called upon first.

She asks whether Labour would be making a "mockery" of people who put their trust in the government if it scraps a key election promise to not raise income tax (read more about what the pledge was here).

"Today is about setting the context for the Budget," Reeves answers - i.e. she's not ruling out a hike.

She adds that viewers can see the "challenges" the government faces.

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

"Our past does not have to determine our future" says Reeves.

The government was elected "to break with the cycle of decline" - and will now go further and faster to deliver growth, she says.

The Budget will deliver "a Britain with an economy that works for everyone" she says.

• And this concludes Reeves's speech. She's just finished taking question from some of the journalists in the room - we'll catch you up on her responses in just a moment. Stay tuned