Editor of Private Eye, Ian Hislop, has slammed the recent Budget during an interview on Sky News. Speaking to Sophy Ridge, he thought that the “budget was a complete shambles”. Last month, Rachel Reeves finally revealed her Budget for 2025 and confirmed that income tax thresholds will remain frozen for another three years, until 2030-31. She also confirmed an overhaul to the state pension regime, which could result in thousands losing out on full payments. In her budget statement, Reeves also unveiled plans to abolish voluntary class 2 National Insurance contributions for individuals living in other countries.
Hislop was quizzed about his “takeaway” on the Budget, to which he laughed and replied: “Again, my takeaway is that they’re taking away all my money. Which is fine, obviously. No, it’s just a complete shambles. I’m getting quite old, but I do remember when you heard nothing about the Budget. Now, we’ve seen it all, and we get a running commentary afterwards. It’s quite extraordinary.”
The Chancellor announced Labour’s highly anticipated Autumn Budget last week.
More than 1.7 million people are set to pay more income tax due to the continued freeze on thresholds, which will push workers into higher tax bands as wages rise.
Reeves confessed the policy would impact “working people” despite Labour’s previous promise to protect them, stating she was “asking everyone to make a contribution”.
Shortly after the budget was announced, in the House of Commons, the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch compared Sir Keir Starmer’s Government to a “slow-motion car crash” and called for Reeves to resign.
A number of other personal finance measures were unveiled, such as higher income tax charges on savings, increases to dividend tax and a limit on the tax advantages of salary-sacrifice pension contributions.
Meanwhile, pensioners received one of the few direct boosts in the November Budget. This included a 4.8% rise, adding £574.50 a year to the new state pension and £439.40 to the basic state pension.