Budget tax rises may be ‘fiscal fiction’ as pain delayed for election year, IFS warns

Rachel Reeves meets voters in Rugby, Warwickshire, to see how her budget has gone down – but most of the tax rises and spending cuts will be felt much later. Photograph: Jacob King/Reuters

Rachel Reeves has been warned that her plans for tax rises and spending restraint in the run-up to the next general election resemble a work of “fiscal fiction”, as MPs expressed concern about the impact of her budget on their constituents.

A day after the chancellor’s statement, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said Reeves had chosen a high-risk strategy by backloading the squeeze to just before voters go to the polls in 2029.