Brits seem curiously untroubled by Labour’s Budget – at least for now
Spectator (UK)OCT 11 2024
House of Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle criticized Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves on Monday for publicly disclosing details of the UK's budget prior to its official announcement in Parliament on Wednesday.
He stated that major government policy announcements should be made in Parliament, receiving "proper, sustained scrutiny" from elected politicians rather than in "American news channels," and claimed her behavior was "a supreme discourtesy."
This comes as Reeves told reporters in Washington, DC, last week that she would "chang[e] the way that" debt is measured, and wrote to the Financial Times that her new fiscal rules would "make space for increased investment."
Reeves's decision to publicize much of her budget prior to its official announcement is a testament to how far respect for the parliamentary convention has fallen. While Labour's naïve media strategy has left itself open for criticism again, it has been a long while since the traditions of the budget have been truly upheld. Westminster must take its duties seriously and protect the sovereignty of Parliament.
Reeves has acted in line with her Parliamentary duties. Providing pretext information concerning the details of the budget has been commonplace for quite some time, and commitments to reworking the UK's fiscal rules have been public since the party's election manifesto. Nonetheless, the government should take Hoyle's perspective into consideration when making future decisions.