Today, Laura and Paddy look ahead to the Spring Statement after Rachel Reeves ruled out "tax and spend" policies, signalling that she will neither raise taxes nor government budgets.

The chancellor has been speaking to Laura for a BBC documentary called ‘The Making of a Chancellor, which you can listen to on BBC Sounds: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00298hq

Also Paddy tries out a new metaphor.

You can now listen to Newscast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Newscast”. It works on most smart speakers.

You can join our Newscast online community here: https://discord.gg/m3YPUGv9

New episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bit.ly/3ENLcS1

Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. It was presented by Laura Kuenssberg and Paddy O’Connell . It was made by Lewis Vickers with Adam Chowdhury. Digital production by Sophie Millward. The technical producer was Rohan Madison. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The editor is Sam Bonham.