Has Chancellor Rachel Reeves got it right? Ed Balls and George Osborne provide their immediate reaction to her Spring Statement, questioning whether she’s missed her big opportunity for a relaunch. George likens her approach to ‘staying at the Roulette table’, having failed to land on black the first time around… 

He also compares her inflexibility to fiscal rules to his own approach while Chancellor, before the pair turn their attention to the government’s own impact assessment on welfare reform. Ed explains what the findings of the report potentially means for millions of families across the country. 

And, having returned from the HSBC Global Investment Summit in Hong Kong mere hours before recording, they turn their attention to uncertainty over the global economy following the announcement of yet more tariffs from Donald Trump. They also ponder somewhat gloomy international perceptions of the UK, with Brexit and Liz Truss being consistent themes that are still raised in conversations abroad. 

Finally the US national security establishment strayed into farcical territory this week, sharing operational details of a strike on Houthi rebels in Yemen on the messaging app Signal - and accidentally including the editor of The Atlantic, Jeff Goldberg, in the conversation. George and Ed express their bemusement at this turn of events and share their own experiences in government of receiving highly classified intelligence... 

You could have been listening to this episode of EMQs early and ad-free with a Political Currency Gold subscription! And even better, you can now get even more perks by becoming a member of our KITCHEN CABINET to get access to live tickets, merch and more! 

Subscribe now: patreon.com/politicalcurrency or on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/politicalcurrency. Please note Kitchen Cabinet subscriptions are only available through Patreon.

Technical Producer: Daniel Pape

Producer: Miriam Hall and Jarek Żaba

Executive Producers: Ellie Clifford 

Political Currency is a Persephonica Production and is part of the Acast Creator Network. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Subscribe now on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.