Why Chancellor Rachel Reeves chose ‘shock and awe’ 8am news conference

Published

4 weeks ago

November 4, 2025

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To understand why Rachel Reeves stood up at 8am in Downing Street in an unprecedented news conference to foreshadow the budget, you need to understand the depth of the problems facing the chancellor.

In 22 days, she must perform the biggest U-turn it is possible for a chancellor to make.

She must hike taxes to the tune of tens of billions of pounds, having promised in the election manifesto that this would not be necessary, and reiterated this promise under a year ago after an initial £40bn of rises.

Not many inhabitants of Number 11 would stay in post if they had to make such a pivot.

But Sir Keir Starmer cannot lose her and know for sure that he also stays in place.

So Ms Reeves is battling for her credibility – and ultimately the survival of this government. The stakes are high.

Politics latest: Reeves refuses to rule out manifesto-breaking tax rises

So back to this morning. Ever since the summer, those in Westminster have known tax rises are on the way in the autumn budget. A Treasury source told me that pitch-rolling for the budget began in July – yet their issue is that to date, almost no-one had noticed.

The subject of the budget was an omerta as recently as the Labour conference a month ago – it simply wasn’t on the agenda in Liverpool.

The first public acknowledgement that she was looking at taxes was in an interview with me on Sky News three weeks ago. She has intermittently revisited the subject subsequently, but quite bluntly, the public haven’t yet noticed.

As recently as last week, people in the Treasury were acknowledging to me that the public are as yet unprepared for the tax shock expected on the scale on 26 November.

So this morning’s event was designed to be shock and awe – an 8am news conference is designed to jolt Westminster and the viewing public to attention, because inside the Treasury they are “desperate” – their words – to get the public watching.

The format allows her to look in control, like a stateswoman in Downing Street making arguments on her terms, even though these are arguments she has been forced into.

So the job of this morning was to educate the public that tax rises are coming, but also put them on notice that this could involve a breach of manifesto promises by raising one of income tax, national insurance, corporation tax or VAT – and then to try and lay the blame anywhere but at the feet of this government.

She also wants to give some hope – by giving a sense of what priorities she would protect.

So what to make of the arguments she made?

‘The impact of Tory austerity, their botched Brexit deal and the pandemic on Britain’s productivity is worse than feared’

Is it really all the Tories fault?

Ms Reeves made an argument today about how lower growth is responsible for Britain’s economic ills, and listed causes with a long tale going back many years for it. This is true, but isn’t strictly the reason for her problems at this budget.

On 26 November, she must fill a £20bn-£30bn “black hole” – that’s the extent to which she is in on course to breach her own self-imposed borrowing limits, known as fiscal rules.

Many of the components of the black hole cannot be put at the door of the Tories. Here’s why:

She must find £10bn to account for policy decisions the government has been pushed into – a failure to push through welfare reform, a U-turn on winter fuel payments, a likely rollover of fuel duty.

She is likely to have to find a further £5bn for decisions she is likely to take – scrapping of the two-child benefit cap, help for energy bills and an emergency injection for redundancy bills and strike coverage costs.

So £15bn of the black hole cannot be blamed on the Tories.

A further £2bn-£4bn for additional debt interest costs is a consequence of the higher borrowing just since the March spring statement – again not the Tories’ fault – and also wants £10bn to give herself a bigger buffer to exit the doom loop.

Ms Reeves has greater scope to argue that the productivity review has longer-term causes, but this is likely to be offset by better wage news, and there is an argument that Labour could have foreseen the productivity downgrade before the election because the Office for Budget Responsibility figures were out of line with other forecasters.

So this is a tricky case to sustain, even though the government has no choice but to make it.

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‘Protecting our NHS, reducing our national debt and improving the cost of living’

The news is grim – but this is the chancellor’s promise of what she is going to prioritise. But what does this amount to?

NHS: I understand this is not a promise of new money for waiting lists in this budget. Ms Reeves is actually making a political argument about the need to not U-turn on last year’s £22bn a year NHS investment – although the public may not hear it.

Cost of living: Partly this is an argument about investment already made in things like breakfast clubs. But with CPI inflation at 4.1%, it’s a major concern – but not one that can be tackled without government spending many billions. There will be some help for energy bills, but not the tens of billions that Liz Truss put towards such schemes. So this risks disappointment.

Reducing debt: It is not about to go down. Her fiscal rules mean she is going to be reducing debt as a percentage of GDP – and even then, only debt on some things, as the fiscal rules spell out some exemptions. So the actual amount we borrow from the markets will continue to grow.

Does it work?

Today is about saying with a louder megaphone things we already knew. She declined to say whether ultimately she will break the manifesto, or what will happen.

She has, however, candidly started a conversation that needed to begin.

UK

Nursery worker, 45, pleads guilty to 26 sexual offences against children

Published

4 hours ago

December 3, 2025

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Nursery worker, 45, pleads guilty to 26 sexual offences against children

A nursery worker has pleaded guilty to 26 sexual offences against children following one of the Metropolitan Police’s most harrowing and complex child sexual abuse investigations.

Vincent Chan, 45, of Finchley, worked at a nursery in north London between 2017 and 2024.

The offences include five counts of sexual assault of a child by penetration, four counts of sexual assault of a child by touching, 11 counts of taking indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of a child, and six counts of making indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of a child.

The latter offences involved images across categories A, B, and C, with category A depicting the most severe abuse.

Chan will be sentenced at Wood Green Crown Court on 23 January.

The Met said this was one of its most harrowing and complex child sexual abuse investigations.

Chan was unmasked as a paedophile after a nursery staff member reported that he had callously filmed a child falling asleep in their food with a nursery-issued device and set it to music for “comedic purposes” before sharing the video with his colleagues, the force said in a statement.

He was subsequently arrested in June 2024 on suspicion of neglect and officers seized 25 digital devices from his home and three from the nursery. Chan was released on bail, but lost his job at the nursery.

Three months later, his devices were submitted for analysis by police, which was completed in July 2025. Forensic teams found substantial amounts of indecent images and videos of children, including evidence of contact sexual offences against children, according to the police statement.

Chan was arrested in September this year on suspicion of sexual offences. Officers seized another 26 devices from his home as well as 15 from the nursery, a since-closed branch of Bright Horizons in West Hampstead.

Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford, who led the Met’s investigation, said: “Child sexual abuse is one of the most horrific crimes imaginable, and Chan’s offending spanned years, revealing a calculated and predatory pattern of abuse.

“He infiltrated environments that should have been safe havens for children, exploiting the trust of families and the wider community to conceal his actions and prey on the most vulnerable.”

DCI Basford added: “We recognise the member of staff who raised their concerns, as without that first report of child cruelty, Chan’s abuse could have continued unchecked, putting countless more children at risk.”

At this time, police identified four children as Chan’s victims.

The families of the victims have been contacted directly and are receiving specialist support, while the NSPCC is running a helpline for all 700 families of children who attended the nursery during the time Chan worked there between 2017 and 2024.

In a statement issued through legal firm Leigh Day, some of the families affected said: “As parents, we are still trying to process the sickening discovery that our children were subjected to despicable abuse by Vincent Chan at the nursery.

“We trust the judge to pass the strongest sentence to fit the crimes Vincent Chan has committed against young children, innocent victims who could not fight back.”

A spokesperson for the nursery said following Chan’s guilty pleas: “This individual’s actions represent not only a violation of the victims, but also a profound betrayal of the trust placed in him by families and colleagues.”

They said the company has extensive safeguarding practices in place, including rigorous vetting and DBS criminal record checks.

The company has commissioned an external expert in the field to undertake a full review of its safeguarding practices after Chan “was able to commit these crimes despite our safeguarding measures”, the nursery spokesperson said.

Anyone who wants to make a report to police about Chan can contact OpLanark@met.police.uk, or call 101 from within the UK, quoting the reference CAD3697/1DEC.

UK

Harry Dunn: ‘Useless’ UK government failed teenager killed by US spy, family says

Published

4 hours ago

December 3, 2025

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Harry Dunn: 'Useless' UK government failed teenager killed by US spy, family says

The family of teenager Harry Dunn, killed by a former US spy, said a damning report into the UK government’s handling of their case was “incredibly painful” to read.

American driver Anne Sacoolas left Britain with diplomatic immunity 19 days after the head-on crash that killed motorbike rider Harry, 19, outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire in August 2019.

The report into the government’s handling of the case, chaired by Dame Anne Owers, marks the end of a six-year struggle for justice and accountability.

It highlights the point at which Sky News first broke the story of Harry Dunn in October 2019 as a key moment when attention on the case escalated at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).

“There was in fact no direct contact between the FCO and the family until 4 October, the day before the Sky News interview was due to go out, when the family was offered a meeting with the foreign secretary himself,” Dame Anne said.

“The family drew the conclusion that this rapid escalation to a very senior level was a direct result of the spotlight of media coverage.”

The report lays bare layer upon layer of failings within the UK government that compounded Harry’s parents’ grief and anguish.

Former foreign secretary David Lammy officially launched the review into the case in July, with the report’s author highlighting “failings and omissions” in the department when dealing with Harry’s death.

It is understood Dame Anne told the Dunn family it was her “strong view” the then foreign secretary Dominic Raab should have been involved “far earlier in the process”, with his private office being copied into a note three days after the crash expressing concern over potentially “unpalatable headlines”.

Harry’s mother Charlotte Charles, a campaigner for road safety, said it was “incredibly painful” to read.

“The report confirms what we have lived with every day for more than six years, that our family was not treated with the honesty or urgency that any grieving parent deserves,” she said, welcoming the findings.

His father Tim Dunn said: “We knew our own government would be useless to us and this report confirms what we knew in those early days. The UK was no match for the US.”

Dame Anne criticised the UK government’s initial handling of the case and subsequent years.

“This issue was not recognised as a crisis and escalated to a sufficiently high level at an early stage, losing opportunities to influence, rather than respond to, events,” she said in the report.

Dame Anne said the US showed “immediate high-level interest” and took “an inflexible approach” after Sacoolas had flown back to America.

“On the UK side this was initially treated as business as usual,” Dame Anne said in the report.

In 2022, Sacoolas admitted causing death by careless driving, but she remained in the US and appeared in a UK court via video link, something the report described as “unprecedented remote proceedings”.

The former spy refused to return to the UK for sentencing. In her absence, she was given an eight-month suspended prison sentence and driving ban.

The diplomatic loophole that Sacoolas and the US government exploited when she left, claiming immunity, has since been closed.

Driver safety initiatives at US bases in the UK have also been improved.

Dame Anne also made 12 recommendations to improve communications and support for families, as well as transparency around complex diplomatic arrangements at military bases like RAF Croughton.

UK

Retired teacher spared jail for ‘sadistic’ abuse of young girls at Angus school

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4 hours ago

December 3, 2025

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Retired teacher spared jail for 'sadistic' abuse of young girls at Angus school

A “sadistic” teacher who abused young girls in residential care over a 15-year period has been spared jail and ordered to pay £1,000 to each of her 18 victims.

Patricia Robertson, 77, was convicted of a spate of offences committed between 1969 and 1984 on girls as young as five at Fornethy House in Kilry, Angus.

Her abuse included punishments for wetting the bed, force-feeding, banging girls’ heads together and dragging children by their hair, the High Court in Glasgow heard.

Robertson, who was 21 at the time of her first offence, was convicted of cruel and unnatural treatment against 18 victims in October following a trial.

Many of her victims were in court on Wednesday and branded her sentence “disgusting” and an “absolute joke” from the public gallery.

The court heard how Robertson force-fed a nine-year-old girl – making her vomit, forced her to stand in darkness in a confined space and ridiculed her for wetting the bed.

She tied an 11-year-old girl to a bed and made her remove her underwear so she could be slapped and hit with a wooden implement, and also destroyed a postcard from her mother.

Robertson seized a child by the neck and forced her to stand against a wall, and banged a child’s head against a desk and dragged her by her hair.

She also used “derogatory language” towards an eight-year-old girl, forced a seven-year-old child to sleep in soiled bedding after ridiculing her for bed-wetting, and refused to allow another girl, seven, to use a toilet, causing her to wet herself.

Robertson was convicted of forcing a primary-age child to eat her own vomit after force-feeding her, and of slapping a child around the face, seizing her hair and dragging her by the ears.

She also forced a child aged between eight and 10 to walk despite having injured feet, and restricted her breathing by tightening her clothing, and made another child walk across rough terrain wearing only one boot.

Judge Lord Colbeck said: “Your victims were aged between five to 12, mostly there due to poverty.

“Many of them spoke of excitement at going to Fornethy House. Those dreams ended when the door closed. It is clear you behaved in a sadistic manner to many young girls.

“You ridiculed children when they wet the bed, and force-fed children food, causing them to gag and vomit.

“You were in position of trust and responsibility and abused that.”

The judge said the offending was of “exceptionally high culpability” and victims had been left with trauma which amounted to “life sentences”.

He said Robertson, now known as Baxter, had shown “no insight” into her crimes.

Lord Colbeck added: “Your suggestion that the victims made allegations for financial reasons is frankly absurd and contradicts the evidence of a former colleague. There is no doubt the custodial threshold has been met.”

However, the judge imposed a supervision order for three years and also made a restriction of liberty order (OLR), meaning Robertson must stay within her home in Witham, Essex, between 3pm until midnight for 12 months.

He also ordered her to pay a total of £18,000 to the victims within the next two months.

Rona Hargan, who spent time at Fornethy House between 1976 and 1979 and was one of Robertson’s victims, said the sentence was “too light”.

She described her time there as “hell” and called Robertson an “evil woman”.

“It was horrendous – and to get three years’ probation is an absolute joke,” she said.

“It was like a horror movie that you live constantly in your mind and we’ll live with this for the rest of our life.”

Another survivor said in a statement: “Patricia Robertson’s lack of remorse for hurting me and other helpless girls proves what a wicked woman she is. She is a shameful monster and she can’t hide from what she’s done.

“We were abused by her and bore witness to the violence we each suffered. Her being found guilty proves we have been heard and believed.”

Thompsons Solicitors is representing around 220 people who say they were affected by their time at Fornethy House and are pursuing civil claims. Legal firm Digby Brown is additionally supporting several other women.

Faye Cook, procurator fiscal for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), said Robertson should have “nurtured and supported” children but instead “inflicted lasting trauma through her criminal actions”.

She added: “It is now a matter of public record that she grossly violated her duty of care while holding a position of trust and power at Fornethy House.

“Her offending may have taken place several decades ago, but this type of abuse has never been acceptable and it should not have happened.”