The Newshound

Reeves names EU as Britain's 'obvious' key ally and slams Brexit as she defends £66bn tax raid after leaving Treasury

Rachel Reeves, who defended her two Budgets at Harvard University, said the £24bn fiscal headroom she built allowed her successor John Healey to deliver last week's cost-of-living support.
Rachel Reeves, who defended her two Budgets at Harvard University, said the £24bn fiscal headroom she built allowed her successor John Healey to deliver last week's cost-of-living support.

Addressing an audience at Harvard University on Monday, the former chancellor — who left the Treasury after being sacked by Andy Burnham — used her first significant public appearance to identify the EU as Britain's "obvious" key ally, arguing that Brexit had left the UK "poorer, weaker and less secure," while also mounting a defence of her £66bn tax raid, claiming it had made Britain stronger and pushed interest rates down, cutting some families' mortgage bills by as much as £800. She conceded the measures were "not without controversy" but insisted there was "no way to raise revenue on the scale required which would be free of pain."

Reeves raised employers' National Insurance from 13.8 per cent to 15 per cent, with the salary threshold at which firms begin paying slashed from £9,100 to £5,000.

She used the Harvard platform to argue that Britain's "future lies inside the European Union," drawing a direct line between Brexit and what she described as the UK becoming poorer and weaker.

Her remarks prompted accusations of "an absolute betrayal of trust," as Britain's unemployment rate hit a five-year high of 5.2 per cent during her tenure.

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