Chancellor says tougher measures required to plug fiscal hole after Treasury watchdog halves 2025 growth forecast

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Rachel Reeves blamed “global uncertainty” as she announced swingeing cuts to welfare and other public spending designed to plug a fiscal hole caused by soaring borrowing costs and sluggish economic growth.

The chancellor told the Commons that the UK’s growth forecast for this year had been halved from 2% to 1% by the Treasury watchdog, which concluded that the chancellor would have missed her goal of balancing the books if she did not act.