Rachel Reeves launched a last-ditch bid tonight to put her beleaguered Budget back on track by unveiling a ‘historic’ freeze on rail fares.
The Chancellor sought to woo commuters by declaring she had chosen to hold train ticket prices ‘for the first time in 30 years’.
Labour boasted that the move, which will apply to season tickets and other ‘regulated’ fares across England, will save rail passengers £600million in 2026/27.
But the announcement, coming just days before Ms Reeves’ Commons Budget speech, re-ignited claims she was flouting parliamentary convention by pre-briefing key parts of her fiscal statement.
And tonight, the Tories even suggested the Chancellor might have broken the hallowed ministerial code if she was aware of Treasury leaks of later abandoned plans to hike income tax rates.
The code states that ‘when Parliament is in session, the most important announcements of government policy should be made in the first instance in Parliament’.
Last week, Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle vented his anger over the scale of pre-Budget briefing, saying ‘at one time, a minister would be resigning’.
Ms Reeves will make her fiscal statement on Wednesday against a backdrop of reports the economy had flatlined, borrowing was worse than feared and shoppers were staying away from the high street.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ (pictured) rail announcement comes days before her Budget speech
The Chancellor’s move will apply to season tickets and other ‘regulated’ fares across England, and is expected to save rail passengers £600million in 2026/27 (file picture)
Adding to her woes, there were claims tonight that 5million people were on benefits with no requirement to work – a million more than previously thought.
Analysis by the Centre for Social Justice said as well as the 4million on Universal Credit, there were another million claiming ’employment and support allowance’.
After the shambolic U-turn on her plans to raise income tax, Ms Reeves is expected to announce a ‘smorgasbord’ of levy increases to fill a multi-billion-pound hole in the public finances.
Speaking at the G20 summit in South Africa, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he wants the Budget to focus on ‘growth’ and ‘stability’, adding that the Government wanted to bear down ‘on the cost of living’.
Ms Reeves said that was ‘why we’re choosing to freeze rail fares for the first time in 30 years’, claiming it would ‘ease the pressure on household finances’.
Treasury sources said a typical commuter using the train three days a week with a flexi-season ticket would save £315 a year travelling from Milton Keynes to London, and £173 a year from Woking.
But tonight Tory transport spokesman Richard Holden said: ‘It is welcome that Labour have finally, under sustained Conservative pressure, frozen rail fares. However, the Government, once again, is late to the platform.’
Last week, Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride wrote to Treasury permanent secretary James Bowler to ask if investigations were being carried out into pre-Budget ‘leaks’.
And today, he told The Mail on Sunday: ‘If the Chancellor knew these leaks were happening – or worse, authorised them – it could represent a serious breach of the ministerial code.’
Ms Reeves came out fighting, telling The Times that she was ‘sick of people mansplaining how to be Chancellor to me’.
