Rachel Reeves’s decision to blame Brexit and its architect Nigel Farage for the scale of the black hole in next month’s Budget is a significant political gamble.

The Chancellor risks a confrontation with her party’s supporters. One in five Leave voters backed Labour at the last election, with many now tempted by Reform UK .

“Austerity, Brexit, and the ongoing impact of Liz Truss’s mini-Budget; all of those things have weighed heavily on the UK economy,” the Chancellor told Sky News on Wednesday, as she laid the groundwork for tax rises in November .

With welfare and winter fuel policy reversals, the signs for this Budget are only pointing one way: to tax increases and spending cuts. But Reeves also has another problem. On 26 November, just as she dusts off her red box, the Of

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