RACHEL REEVES JUST ADMITTED SHE’S LOST THE PLOT – AND WE’RE ALL STRAPPED TO THE BUDGET ROLLERCOASTER

Westminster, 24 Nov 2025 – In a moment that will live in political infamy longer than Liz Truss’s lettuce, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has looked straight down the barrel of a Times Magazine interview and confessed: “I’m not even sure any more what the popular path is.”

Let that sink in. The woman holding the nation’s purse strings – the one who spent the entire election campaign telling us she’d “fix the foundations” – has just publicly announced she’s winging it like a fresher on deadline night. Two days before her second Budget drops on Wednesday 26 November, the Chancellor of the Exchequer is basically saying: “Your guess is as good as mine, lads.”

This isn’t a leak. It’s a full-blown existential crisis in broadsheet form.

What We Know Is Coming (Brace Yourselves)

Treasury sources, OBR whispers, and the usual Westminster sewer rats have been leaking like a colander. Here’s the menu for Wednesday’s shit sandwich:

• Frozen tax thresholds on steroids – another million working people dragged into higher-rate tax without a single “rate rise” (because Labour promised not to touch rates, remember?)
• North Sea oil tax breaks getting the guillotine – Aberdeen’s about to discover what “just transition” really means when your rig job turns into a wind-turbine leaflet gig
• Winter fuel U-turn already costing £6bn after 40+ Labour MPs threatened mutiny – granny’s heating is safe, but someone else is paying for it
• Capital gains? Inheritance tax? Council tax reval? All “under review” which in Whitehall means “we’re doing it but we’ll announce it after the cameras stop rolling”
• Welfare “reforms” dressed up as fraud crackdowns while the benefits bill balloons and Reform UK sharpens the pitchforks
• OBR forecast downgrade incoming – growth revised down to “barely breathing”, forcing Reeves to choose between breaking manifesto promises or breaking the economy

The Quote That Broke the Internet

Reeves’ full money-quote, for the sickos who want it verbatim: “There’s no money left, public services are on their knees, and I’m not even sure any more what the popular path is.”

Translation: “We’ve spent 18 months telling you everything would be fine once the grown-ups were back in charge. Turns out the grown-ups are just as fucked as the last lot.”

The FY Times Verdict

Rachel Reeves isn’t evil. She’s just the human embodiment of a Google Docs spreadsheet that’s been shared with 650 backbench MPs who all have edit rights and zero chill. Keir Starmer wanted a “mission-led government”. Congratulations, mate – your mission is now “don’t get Faraged in the local elections”.

Wednesday’s Budget won’t be a fiscal event. It’ll be the series finale of Labour: The Honeymoon Years.

Grab your popcorn, cancel your plans, and bookmark thefytimes.com – because when the dispatch box opens at 12:30pm on Wednesday, Britain’s about to discover whether Rachel Reeves has found that “popular path”… or whether she’s about to yeet us all straight off the cliff. Follow @TheFYTimes for live meltdown coverage, savage one-liners, and zero sacred cows. #TheFYTimes Politics shouldn’t be boring. It should be fucking entertaining.