UK's unpopular Labour government tries to fight back with a tax

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s unpopular center-left Labour government sought to seize the political narrative Wednesday with a tax-raising budget that it hopes will boost economic growth, reduce child poverty and ease cost-of-living pressures.

But the budget's contents were leaked half an hour before Treasury chief Rachel Reeves delivered the statement in the House of Commons, in a sign of the chaos that has engulfed the government during weeks of mixed messaging and political infighting.

The government was elected in a landslide victory in July 2024 on a promise not to raise taxes on income for working people. Reeves acknowledged some of the budget’s 26 billion pounds ($34 billion) in tax hikes, largely to increase the buffer available to the government for any future shocks, broke the spir