Tag Archives: 2025 spending review

Mark Valladares

12 June 2025 – Thursday’s Federal press releases

By Mark Valladares | Sat 14th June 2025 - 11:05 pm
  • GDP figures: Chancellor’s claims at spending review have not “survived contact with reality”
  • Spending review: Over £4.5 billion of “hidden” cuts to departments could be avoided with better UK-EU trade deal
  • Reeves must rule out tax rises for families and small businesses, say Lib Dems
  • AUKUS: Trump move to bring submarine deal under review throws “grenade” into security partnership

GDP figures: Chancellor’s claims at spending review have not “survived contact with reality”

Responding to GDP falling by 0.3% in April, the first month of figures since the employers’ national insurance rise came into effect and Trump’s tariffs came into effect, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:

At the spending review yesterday the Chancellor suggested that the country was on the up but today this claim has not survived contact with reality.

Today’s figures should be a wake up call for the Government which has so far refused to listen to the small businesses struggling to cope with the jobs tax, worried that our high streets will be completely hollowed out and that our hospitality sector is hanging by a thread.

To tackle Trump’s tariffs, Ministers must stop cowering in the corner and get on with building an economic coalition of the willing with our European and Commonwealth neighbours.

It’s time for the Government to get serious, scrap their damaging jobs tax and go for growth with a bespoke UK-EU Customs Union that will raise billions to re-build our public services.

Spending review: Over £4.5 billion of “hidden” cuts to departments could be avoided with better UK-EU trade deal

Government departments are facing real-terms cuts of £4.6 billion by 2028-29, Liberal Democrat analysis of the Spending Review has revealed.

The Liberal Democrats said these “painful cuts” could be avoided by boosting growth, including through a better UK-EU trade deal that could boost public finances by around £25 billion a year.

Some departments will see significant cuts over the spending review period. The Foreign Office, Home Office and Department for Transport are all expected to be hit with real-terms cuts of over £1 billion. DEFRA will also see a £355 million real-terms cut over three years.

The Liberal Democrats said that the spending review will see public services already stretched to breaking point be expected to endure another round of painful cuts.

The party said that the Government would not have to make these choices if it got a better trade deal with the EU and moved to negotiating a bespoke UK-EU Customs Union. Previous analysis has found that a better deal even within the Government’s own red lines could boost GDP by 2.2% raising £25 billion a year in extra revenue for the Exchequer.

Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson, Daisy Cooper MP said:

Hidden in the small print of the spending review are painful cuts to public spending, with funding for social care and our police being stretched to breaking point.

We cannot afford to wait another decade for the government to fix social care while patients are treated in hospital corridors and elderly people wait for months on end for a care home place.

The Chancellor would not have to make these difficult choices if she got serious about going for growth, got a better trade deal with the EU and cut red tape for British businesses.

That is the best way to boost our economy, put more money into people’s pockets and rebuild our public services.

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Andrew Chandler

Reeves’ Spending Review lacks vision

By Andrew Chandler | Thu 12th June 2025 - 1:23 pm

In the afterglow of Rachel Reeves’ Spending Review, Labour’s press machine was quick to declare victory. Behind the slogans, the figures, and the bumptious cheers from the Labour benches, reality reared its head — fast and unflinching.

Yes, the NHS has gotten a financial uplift. Day-to-day spending is to increase to 3% per year. A welcome move. But let’s not uncork the bubbly just yet – since 1999, most parliaments have averaged a 4% increase. And anyone who’s ever tried to buy medical equipment knows, health inflation tends to swagger above consumer average.

And behind the figures and planted slogans; Reeves tried to hide—like a magician shuffling a bent card back into the deck—the real sin. The real detail, if you look hard enough, is hidden in plain sight. The capital budget – for bricks, beds, scanners and surgical machines – is flat. Flat in real terms over the review period. So while Reeves praises its “Labour choices”, the reality is a Review that feels like it offers the NHS by putting on fresh coat of paint on a house riddled with damp.

And what of social care? A passing mention? No. Not a word. A critical part of tackling patient backlog, ignored. As Daisy Cooper rightly called it – a missed opportunity. Labour hoped some wouldn’t notice. But some of us did while social care is kicked back again into the long grass.

Much like some of us noticed Labour’s clumsy sleight of hand with the bus fare cap. “We’ve kept it at £3!” I saw them gloat on their social media’s. Yes, after you raised it from £2 last year. The party that hiked the fare now wants applause for “protecting” the price they hiked up. Working people, like myself, who actually use buses – we’re not daft. The message smells less of sincerity, more of spin and exhaust fumes.

Still, I’ll admit: not all was bleak.

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Mark Valladares

11 June 2025 – today’s Spending Review press releases

By Mark Valladares | Wed 11th June 2025 - 10:30 pm
  • “Smoke and mirrors” spending review could leave a blackhole for social care
  • Police funding short-fall as families face council tax bombshell to pick up the tab
  • Spending review: Reeves has put farmers “at the back of the Treasury queue”
  • Welsh rail funding announcement – Wales getting the scraps again
  • Lib Dems comment on defence, Acorn, supercomputer in spending review

“Smoke and mirrors” spending review could leave a blackhole for social care

Responding to the spending review, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:

This spending review was a missed opportunity to repair the damage done by the Conservatives and finally deliver on the promise of change.

Behind the smoke and mirrors is a potential blackhole for social care as local government budgets remain at breaking point. Putting more money into the NHS without fixing social care is like pouring water into a leaky bucket.

The Chancellor must also raise her ambition for the country and boost growth through a much closer trade deal with the EU. That’s the best way to improve people’s living standards and unlock billions of pounds more for our public services.

Police funding short-fall as families face council tax bombshell to pick up the tab

The Government has said that the ‘police core spending power’ increases assumes rises in the PCC council tax precept in order to fund it. It means people will be left to pick up the tab in order to fund increases in police spending with the Government refusing to cover the costs.

Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson Lisa Smart MP said:

The Government is relying on a hidden council tax bombshell to fund their half-hearted rise in police funding as they pass the buck to local families.

After frontline policing was neglected for years under the Conservatives, local communities deserve better than this sleight of hand.

The Government must put more bobbies on the beat, with the proper funding to make it happen. Liberal Democrats will keep pushing for the proper neighbourhood policing our communities deserve.

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The Voice

Lib Dems react to Spending Review “smoke and mirrors”

By The Voice | Wed 11th June 2025 - 2:16 pm

The Liberal Democrats have reacted to the Spending Review.

Daisy Cooper has warned that Rachel Reeves may have left a black hole for social care funding. This is based on local government having their funding cut by 1.4% during the period of the review. Councils have a statutory duty to provide social care and this does not help them.

This spending review was a missed opportunity to repair the damage done by the Conservatives and finally deliver on the promise of change.

Behind the smoke and mirrors is a potential blackhole for social care as local government budgets remain at breaking point. Putting more money into the NHS without fixing social care is like pouring water into a leaky bucket.

The Chancellor must also raise her ambition for the country and boost growth through a much closer trade deal with the EU. That’s the best way to improve people’s living standards and unlock billions of pounds more for our public services.

Welsh Lib Dem MP David Chadwick was distinctly unimpressed with Labour’s plans to invest in Welsh rail:

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Caron Lindsay

What are Liberal Democrats looking for from the spending review?

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 11th June 2025 - 8:15 am

Today Rachel Reeves announces her spending review. What are Liberal Democrats looking for from it?

It will surprise nobody to hear that social care is top of the agenda, alongside a closer relationship with Europe. Without the latter, Treasury Spokesperson Daisy Cooper says, Labour will be trying to drive the economy forward with the handbrake on. And anyone who has tried to do that in a car will know how impossible that feels and how much of an idiot you feel when you realise that you have forgotten to take the handbrake off.

Daisy said:

People have been left desperately disappointed in the Government’s failure to break clean from years of Conservative neglect and finally start delivering the change that people were promised.

Today’s spending review must deliver progress on social care. The Government’s bid to start reforms has barely progressed since it was announced six-months ago. Yet we all know the simple truth: without solving the social care challenge, putting money into the NHS today will be like pouring water into a leaky bucket.

Ministers should also be slashing the reams of red tape that are holding local businesses back and negotiate a bespoke UK-EU customs union, rather than pursuing painful cuts to already stretched budgets. Until they do, the Chancellor will still be trying to drive the economy forward with the handbrake on.

Here she is speaking about the key issues:

The Party has also commissioned House of Commons library research into the impact of possible cuts.  The Independent reports;

However, the analysis, carried out by researchers at the House of Commons library commissioned by the Lib Dems, found that unprotected departments — which excludes NHS England, the core schools budget and defence — could see real-terms cuts worth nearly £5 billion in total by 2028/29.

The calculation, based on Reeves’ promise that will not hike taxes, was made before the chancellor committed a further £1.25bn a year to reversing cuts of winter fuel payments to pensioners, a U-turn which was confirmed on Monday. It also does not take into account another potential U-turn on ending the two child benefit cap, which could cost a further £3bn.

The Home Office budget is forecast to take a huge hit, being almost half a billion quid short. The Independent report forecasts dire outcomes for social care and education. These would be incredibly short-sighted. It is so obvious that fixing social care is vital to sorting out the whole NHS, and why would you cut back on skills development when you are also hell bent on cutting social security and putting even greater holes in the safety net than the Conservatives’ best efforts managed?

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