The Daily T: Police are just the start — Reeves' spending headaches will only get worse

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28-05-2025

With Rachel Reeves announcing her spending review in just two weeks, there's a desperate jostle for last-minute cash before budgets get drastically cut. Angela Rayner wants more money for social housing so that she can meet the Government's target for 1.5m new homes by the end of the parliament. Ed Milliband also wants more money so that he can meet Labour's pledge for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
But perhaps the most striking intervention comes from the UK's top police chiefs — including Sir Mark Rowley — who today warned that the government won't hit their targets to halve knife crime and rates of violence against women and girls, as well as to recruit 13,000 additional police officers, if budgets are reduced.
However, with a £3bn increase in funding since 2016, as well as an extra 20,000 officers added to the force in the same period, do they actually deserve or need more money?
Can Rachel Reeves juggle the twin requirements of bringing the economy under control, whilst also trying to placate her party and her fellow ministers' instincts to increase public spending? And is she being left swinging in the wind by her own Prime Minister?
Labour also risks being outflanked by Nigel Farage, who this week promised to raise the two-child benefit cap and to fully restore winter fuel payments to pensioners. But as economist Tom Clougherty tells The Daily T, the Reform UK leader will come under scrutiny in the coming years to show his numbers add up.
Elsewhere, away from Westminster, King Charles is in Canada at the state opening of parliament — and did he make a not-so-subtle dig at Donald Trump's ambitions to annex his northerly neighbours?
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