Rachel Reeves has said she is facing “harsh global headwinds” as she hinted at further tax rises to come in the Budget.
The Chancellor used her Labour Party conference speech to insist that she would keep control of the public finances and would “not take risks with the trust placed in us by the British people”.
But she acknowledged that her choices had been made “harder” by international events and the “long-term damage” done to the economy.
Ahead of her keynote speech in Liverpool Ms Reeves had warned that “the world has changed” since she promised business chiefs she would not repeat the tax raid of her first budget.
“I think everyone can see in the last year that the world has changed, and we’re not immune to that change,” the Chancellor told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“Whether it is wars in Europe and the Middle East, whether it is increased barriers to trade because of tariffs coming from the United States, whether it is the global cost of borrowing, we’re not immune to any of those things.
“It’s very important that we maintain those commitments to economic stability because we rely on people to buy Government debt to be able to finance the things that we’re doing as a country.
“I wish it wasn’t so, but I am Chancellor in the world as it is, not the world that I might wish it to be.”
Ms Reeves’ conference speech in Liverpool was interrupted by a pro-Palestinian heckler.
