Budget Battle: Cabinet Ministers Appeal to Starmer to Mitigate Harsh Spending Cuts Ahead of Fiscal Announcement

Cabinet members have sent letters to Starmer in a crucial bid to mitigate the severity of budgetary reductions

In a direct appeal bypassing Chancellor Rachel Reeves, ministers have sent their grievances regarding the budget directly to Sir Keir Starmer and Downing Street.

Assistant Political Editor @SamCoatesSky

Thursday, October 17, 2024, at 7

Cabinet members have sent an urgent letter to the prime minister, requesting a reduction in the proposed spending cuts before the upcoming budget.

Key financial decisions for the budget needed to be finalized by Wednesday's end and forwarded to the Office for Budget Responsibility before the Treasury closed for the night.

Sky News has verified that cabinet ministers have sent letters expressing concerns about the budget directly to Sir Keir Starmer and Number 10, bypassing Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

Latest in Politics: Cabinet Officials Alarmed by Extent of Budget Reductions

It is thought that a number of these letters were sent out in the past few days.

Following Wednesday, typically only minor adjustments are possible within the budget, usually concerning amounts in the range of millions rather than billions. Bloomberg was the first to report on the presence of these letters.

Several members of the cabinet are expressing significant worries regarding the extent of budget reductions required in certain sectors to accommodate salary increments and enhanced expenditure in other areas.

Reports indicate that Downing Street has been approached with grievances from three separate government entities: the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Department for Transport, and the Ministry of Justice.

Not all of these grievances were expressed in written correspondence.

It is believed that a plea for intervention from Downing Street has mitigated some of the reductions for certain cabinet ministers' departments.

Overall, the structure of the budget, primarily finalized on Wednesday evening, has stayed the same – and the anxiety about its reception in a fortnight persists.

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Over the weekend, Sky News disclosed that a cabinet minister expressed concerns about government plans, saying, "The briefings don't reflect what's actually happening. There's difficulty expected this year and the next. Essentially, we're just making problems that we'll have to solve later this year."

In the upcoming budget, Ms. Reeves plans to ease borrowing restrictions to allow for increased expenditure, while also implementing tax increases and welfare reductions totaling up to £40 billion to alleviate fiscal strains.

However, the expense of substantial pay increases in the public sector, which must still be sourced from existing departmental budgets, necessitates that the Treasury continues to demand cuts for this year and the next.

Discover more: What might the chancellor reveal in the upcoming budget? This budget represents Labour's most significant challenge. What are Labour's financial regulations, and is there a possibility that Reeves might modify them?

Several government officials argue that the budget cuts cannot be maintained, with some referencing the initial spending cuts revealed before summer, such as the adjustments to the winter fuel allowance, as proof that greater involvement from the Prime Minister's office is required before the upcoming budget and spending review scheduled for October 30.

A government insider informed Sky News: "Currently, everyone at Number 10 is concentrated on the budget, leaving little room for other matters."

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Officials state that it is standard practice to send out letters expressing concerns during this stage of the budget review, emphasizing that this is a typical procedure.

Sir Keir and Ms Reeves will be abroad next week, just prior to the budget release. Nonetheless, after today, only minor adjustments are usually possible to the budget's framework.

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