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When Chancellor Rachel Reeves entered the Commons to deliver her 2025 budget, she already knew it would be difficult. What she did not expect was the unprecedented major leak that crashed through the media minutes before she stood up.

Just half an hour earlier, during Prime Minister’s Questions, the entire forecast from the Office for Budget Responsibility appeared online in full.

The Budget had already been labelled the “leakiest ever”, but few imagined it would come crashing down from the OBR quite so dramatically.

Reeves promised “cut, cut, cut” framed as cuts to the cost of living and the cost of debt. She did lift the two-child benefit cap, a move promised by the Scottish Government , but now funded by Westminster.

Anas Sa

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