Post your questions for Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer

[JustineMumsnet]

Hi all,
Next week we’ll be back in Westminster to put your questions to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves MP.
If there’s something you’d like me to ask her - from the big economic picture to how the cost of living is affecting families (or anything else) - then please post your question below.

As ever, one question per user please, and keep it civil. We’ll be tight on time, so short, focused questions will help us get through as many as possible.

We’ll close the thread early on Sunday evening, so please do get your questions in before then. We’ll be back soon with her responses.

Thanks,
Justine

You - and other politicians - often blame external shocks for the rise in the cost of living, from Covid to Ukraine to Iran. But if capitalism means ordinary people get poorer every time something like that happens, isn’t that a sign the system itself is broken? Why should we keep accepting an economy that seems to make a few very select people richer and everyone else worse off - to the point that in our 'advanced' and 'wealthy' country more than 20% of the population live below the poverty line?

Before the election, you (the Labour Party) told us that you were going to restore hope, rebuild our country and - No 1 on your list of missions - kickstart economic growth. Manifesto.

Could you tell us when any of this might happen?
Because 40% of the way through your mandate, I can only see things going backwards.

I'd like to know what the government are going to do to help the younger generation ? No jobs, massive student debt and for many no hope at all. Some will have the cushion of wealthy parents but many won't. I fear for my kids futures and their mental health in the current climate and no-one seems to care. Everything is focused on the pensioners and protecting them but there will be no tax payers left to fund their pensions, attendance allowance and care homes etc soon unless someone looks after the younger ones.

On the 11th April 2024 the Supreme Court ruled, in FWS v The Scottish Ministers, that 'woman' for the purposes of Equality Act 2010 means 'biological sex'.
WE ARE A YEAR ON FROM THAT JUDGEMENT.. WHEN IS THE LABOUR PARTY GOING TO SUPPORT WOMEN AND START ENACTING THIS RULING?
Or are the tiny proportion of trans-identifying males more important to your Party than women? Why is that?

#LabourLosingWomen.

How do you protect yourself and your family from the abuse and misogyny you receive in de media and online?

Why are you rewarding worklessness and punishing working taxpaying families by giving the latters’ (many of whom are barely surviving) tax payments to non-working benefit-claiming families who irresponsibly have more than two children when they can’t afford to support the children they already have?

When exactly will your party U turn on the tax on our children’s education and stop the VAT on parent paid schooling?

time has proven the strategy is misplaced & costing the country more money than it generates.

What are the government going to do now that income tax receipts does not cover the benefits bill?

Oh, please don't ask this question. The answer will be to increase taxes even more. Until there is no-one left working here.

After 14 years in opposition while the Conservative Party ran the country into the ground why does it feel like nothing has changed since the Labour government was elected?

I had really high hopes that you would come into government with radical plans to kickstart economic growth but it feels like you don't have any plans or solutions at all except more of the same failed public sector reorganisations and austerity light.

What are you plans to improve the lives of working people and give them a reason to vote Labour at the next election as right now people are thoroughly disillusioned with both the Conservative and Labour parties.

The social contract between the individual and the state is really at risk if people feel like they get nothing back for their taxes which at the minute people do.

The key question

Thousands of women like me have been harmed from medical negligence, medicines safety, lack of research and informed consent. Records lost, unrecorded implants, vague risk explanations and buck passing. We have no access to justice because our cases don't fit neatly into one area of law. Women affected by surgical mesh and Valproate were promised redress. I've been campaigning for twenty years but families need urgent support now. When will you invite groups into the room to discuss and provide an urgent interim payment and a redress scheme. A small price to pay for the harm done to our bodies, our babies and our families. Please don't tell us you're 'working on it' or 'its a complex matter involving different departments'
We've done the work - sued the drugs company, our doctors, we've changed the safety systems. We did this for you, for free. Years of unpaid meetings and engagement activities. We did the research. We care for our harmed children and our harmed bodies, with no support.

Susan Cole Valproate Victims

Hello Rachel, I don't know anyone who thinks the SEND reforms will improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND. Can you tell me how much you expect to save?

This question please.

Please stop gaslighting regarding jobs.( not just aimed at you but also McFadden et al).
Both of my sons..1 with a really good degree are finding it impossible to get anything( and have for a few years).
They are both desperate to work.

This 😊

This 😊

The Barnett Formula - even Barnett was embarrassed by it! It was a stop gap solution and here we are in 2026. How can any government justify a painting-by-numbers strategy as opposed to needs-based allocation.

Sorry, so my question: Given that the Labour Party was founded - in part - on the principle of collective provision and reducing inequity... how on earth can the current government justify still using the Barnett Formula?

This too 😊

Why do you accept donations from American private health corporations and do you agree that the practice of MPs accepting money this way should be banned for all public servants

Not Rachel. However I would argue that free childcare for people earning over 100k is ludicrous, and your friends who are working part time solely to stay under that for tax purposes are selfish tax dodgers.

Will Income Tax have to be increased to pay for the huge Benefits bill as we have now reached a point where the country’s outgoings have overtaken our incomings ?

When,if ever, is the travesty that is inheritance tax going to be abolished? Thanks.

Dear Rachel, what are you going to do to stop situations like this?
When people consciously reduce their hours and work less than they can because benefits pay more?
To drop my hours to 22.5 even though I’m a single parent? | Mumsnet

This.