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WATCH: James Murray says Labour is going 'further and faster' to get the economy growing
Oct 15, 2025
A Labour MP's claim that Chancellor Rachel Reeves is "focused on putting more money in people's pockets" was forensically questioned during an intense GB News grilling.Speaking to GB News hosts Eamonn Holmes and Ellie Costello, Chief Secretary to the Treasury James Murray stressed that Budgets "always include a reflection of the position on taxation and spending".FULL STORY HERE.
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The Chancellor's confirmed for the first time this morning that tax rises and spending cuts are coming in the budget on the 26th of November
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It means, doesn't it, that the British people are facing a nightmare before Christmas, many already struggling with the cost of living
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Well, look, I know that people across the country are struggling to make ends meet
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And for us as a government, that's why it's so important we do everything we can to bring down inflation and to put more money in people's pockets
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And by taxing them all. Now, the concept that a budget includes measures in relation to tax and spending is not new
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Budgets always reflect on taxation and spending. But what budgets under us also focus on is growth
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And we were just talking about growth a second ago in relation to the planning system
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because we know that getting greater economic growth in this country is a way to make people better off
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And that's why we're so focused on speeding up these planning decisions, getting shovels in the ground, getting infrastructure and homes built
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because we know that will make people in every part of the UK have more money in their pockets Well James it doesn look as if we going to have more money in our pockets come Rachel Reeves budget in November There you are you part of the whole Treasury set up there
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It doesn't look good from what she's been saying this morning. You talked about cuts there and taxes, and it looks like she might have to get involved in both
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well as i said budgets always include a reflection of the position on taxation and spending and for
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us it also includes growth and actually on the on the spending element of what the government is
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doing um you know one of my jobs as chief secretary to the treasury is to make sure we keep a tight
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grip on public spending that we keep making sure we're making efficiencies that we're cutting waste
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that we're making sure we're spending taxpayers money wisely and getting value for money
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for taxpayers. That is one of the things that drives me in this job. I have written to Cabinet colleagues about that to make clear how
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important that must be to us every day as a government because we need
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to make sure we are spending taxpayers' money wisely and that is a real priority for me and the rest of the government. It is a grim
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picture though isn it The headlines this morning number of jobless hits four high we are facing the highest inflation in the G7 the worst growth living standards in the West a black hole of up to 30 billion
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And when this is put to the Chancellor, she blames Brexit, she blames austerity
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she blames the Tories. Can you admit that any of this mess is the government's fault
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Well, it's also true that the IMF have upgraded our growth forecasts this year
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We had the fastest growing economy in the G7 in the first half of this year
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But look, we're really clear there's a lot more we need to do. We're really clear there's long-term reasons why our country is in a difficult position
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But we're also clear we want to go further and faster to get the economy growing. And to bring it back again to the planning changes I was talking about earlier
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getting Britain building is a sure way to boost economic growth and to make people in every part of the country better off
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There are rumours swirling this morning that the Chancellor is rethinking inheritance tax on farms. The speculation is that the threshold for inheritance tax
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is going to go up. What do you say to that? No look that policy was settled We announced that at the budget last year We think the approach that we took was a fair and proportionate approach where it still allowed owners of
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assets to have a million pounds without being subject to inheritance tax and then a 50
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relief above that level. That was a fair way forward. And look, we're focused on the next
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budget, not reopening discussions of the past one. There's also reports in The Telegraph this morning that Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor
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is to miss the NATO defence spending targets. This is from the Public Accounts Committee
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They say it's sceptical that this commitment to spend 2.6% of GDP
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on defence by 2027 is affordable. I mean, that's alarming, isn't it, in the dangerous world that we're living in
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Well, the Chancellor has set out exactly how we're going to pay for our defence commitments, and the Prime Minister has made his commitment
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to that absolutely clear as well. And ultimately, it's the Chancellor who sets the budget
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and she will give an update, she'll give her next budget on November 26th
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making sure that we can meet our pledges, making sure that we can meet our fiscal rules
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because our fiscal rules are so important to underpinning that economic stability which we brought to office
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