Enda Brady: UK correspondent on the fallout from the UK 2025 Budget

The UK’s embattled Labour Government has unveiled a tax-raising budget - after its full contents were leaked half an hour early.

The plan's designed to lift economic growth and ease cost-of-living pressures.

UK correspondent Enda Brady says Chancellor Rachel Reeves acknowledged ordinary people would have to pay more, and it's prompted backlash.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
In the Brady UK correspondence with me, Hello, Indo, Hey Heather,
how are you all right? So tell me what you
think of the budget.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Well, if you believe the papers and their calculations and
all the experts were all a lot less well off
than we were twenty four hours ago. And I think
looking long term, some people's pension pots could be down
as much as one hundred thousand dollars higher earners towards
the end of their careers. This is a very kind
of clever, stealthy way of taking money from people without

(00:32):
them really realizing it. So Rachel reeves at the Chancellor.
She has gone after pensions, she's gone after workers, she's
gone after savers. They've even put a tax on milkshakes.
Would you believe there's nothing they have in tax this time?

Speaker 1 (00:46):
So how do you justify a text on milkshakes? What
is it a milkshake tax?

Speaker 2 (00:50):
There's sugar in milkshakes. And they've also put a tax
on those, you know, those canned lattes that you see
in petrol station service stations. They've put a tax on
those as well, So they've got it under the sugar tax.
So what will happen is the manufacturers will go away.
They'll come up with a different recipe, probably even less
healthy for consumers. But they've I don't know, they inherited

(01:12):
a complete mess. And one line that Reeves came out
with yesterday when she was speaking was that she said,
this is not about the last fourteen months of us,
It's about fixing the last fourteen years of them, and
she pointed at the Conservatives. But the public aren't interested.
I think Christmas coming, We're in winter now, energy builds rocketing.
People care about how much cash or how little cash

(01:33):
they have left at the end of the month, and
I just can't see Starmer turning this round now.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Okay, So she says that energy bills are going to
fall into something like one hundred and fifty pounds on
average over a year, So there is some sweetener in
there for the public. On balance, does the public like
what it sees or hate what it sees?

Speaker 2 (01:52):
I think the public absolutely hates what it's seeing from
labor right now. And yes, she's saying that come April
next year, they're going to put in place mechanisms where
energy bills will fall. Well, come April, the weather gets
better and people won't be using as much energy, So
why can't they do it now? I just the thing
that really kind of sticks with me is an awful

(02:12):
lot of money seems to be earmarked for welfare payments
and benefits. I think it's a great budget if you're
on benefits and you don't do any work. But they're
clobbering working families, and traditionally working families vote Labor, so
you can join the dots up the way this is
going to.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Go okay, So how does it go for Kistama.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
I think he's got until these elections in May. There
are national elections in Scotland and Wales in May, and
then local elections across England as well. And if you
look at the polling, I mean Reformer hitting twenty six percent,
thirty percent in some places, Labor are limping along at
sixteen the Green Party now snapping at Labour's heels on
fifteen percent, and nobody votes Green here save for a

(02:54):
few constituencies. So his polling is absolutely shocking. And I
think all of the chatter of the last two weeks
about Wes Streeting the Health Secretary, lining up his ducks
and wanting to be the next leader and Prime Minister
there's something in that clearly, but I think Starmer's into
the last six months.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
Wow, okay, and what is this tourist tax in Cornwall?
And Devin like, so this is.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
Away from the budget. This is something that they're going
to give regional mayors the power to do in their areas,
and Devon and Cornwall seem quite keen on us. So
anyone who's traveled in Europe in the last couple of years,
you pay your bills up front and when you check
out the hotel, suddenly the guy or lady on reception
will say to you, oh, there's the tourist tax. We
need to settle up, and yeah, it's only about four

(03:37):
dollars a night in some cities. And I've had this
happen to me in Italy, France and the Netherlands in
the last few years. And you're like, oh, okay, and
then when you realize, hang on, I've been here a week,
We've got the kids with us, whoa, okay, So there's
not much change out of you know, a lot of dollars. Basically,
they're stealing the idea from some European cities whereby they

(03:58):
will bang in this extra maybe four or five dollars
a night TOURUS tax per person and then the local
regional authority will be able to spend that on services
in places like Devon and Cornwall. So it's yet another
stealth tax and because it's so small, most people don't
question it. Anytime I have questioned it in Europe they
blame the local mayor and that's exactly what's going to

(04:20):
happen here.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
Ah yeah, Okay, Linda, thank you very much, really appreciate
your time. Mate. That's into Brady, UK Correspondent.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
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