Today, Rachel Reeves has refused to rule out tax rises in a speech laying the groundwork ahead of the budget.

The Chancellor told gathered journalists “the world has thrown even more challenges our way” in a speech which seemed to confirm tax rises on 26th November. Labour had previously pledged not to hike income tax, VAT or National Insurance in it’s general election manifesto. Adam and Chris are joined by deputy economic editor Dharshini David.

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://bbc.in/newscastdiscord

Get in touch with Newscast by emailing newscast@bbc.co.uk or send us a WhatsApp on +44 0330 123 9480.

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://bbc.in/4guXgXd Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. The presenter was Adam Fleming. It was made by Jack Maclaren with Shiler Mahmoudi. The social producer was Joe Wilkinson. The technical producer was Ben Andrews. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

Exclusive with Nvidia CEO Huang and Synopsys CEO, December Playbook 12/1/25

Squawk on the Street

Intro

The AI-powered Podcast Player