UK’s Reeves paves way for tax rises in her next budget

By Alistair Smout and Sarah Young

LONDON (Reuters) -British finance minister Rachel Reeves paved the way for broad tax rises to avoid a return to “austerity” on Tuesday, framing her second annual budget as one of “hard choices” to protect public spending while reducing Britain’s debt.

In an unusual speech for a finance minister to make just three weeks before delivering the budget, Reeves set out the difficult economic backdrop she was wrestling with, pointing to high debt levels, low productivity and stubborn inflation.

This meant, she said, the government would most likely have to take “hard choices” in the budget on November 26, ones which would force “all here to contribute” to secure jobs, and the future of the health and education sectors which she described as the nation’s priori