Budget 2024 latest: Reeves to unveil plan to rip up debt rules and unlock £50bn at IMF in Washington

Local mayors have reportedly engaged in a last-minute lobbying campaign to persuade the chancellor to soften potentially hundreds of millions in transport cuts.

There are fears bus, tube and tram projects in all 12 combined authorities represented by metro mayors could be at risk of underfunding. Following the local elections in May, 11 of these posts are held by Labour mayors.

“The mayors have been pushing back on the idea that their sustainable budgets should be cut, not least because many of them thought the money was guaranteed until 2027,” one official told The Guardian.

With the Budget only a week away, Ms Reeves will have already submitted her proposals to the Office for Budget Responsibility, making any last-minute changes unlikely.

The chancellor already made a substantial cut to rail infrastructure projects in July, when she announced the cancellation of the Tory-era Restoring Your Railways project alongside unveiling the £22bn shortfall in public spending:

Ahead of the Budget on 30 October, there has been fevered speculation about changes to pension savers’ tax allowances and other perks.

Reports that pensioners could have tax breaks cut or axed led to savers withdrawing chunks of their retirement pots ahead of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s big announcement.

The UK economy will grow faster than previously thought as lower inflation and borrowing costs lead to a boost in business activity, a boost for chancellor Rachel Reeves as she aims to fix the nation’s finances.

The update from the International Monetary Fund also suggested that the fight against inflation and the cost of living crisis had “largely been won”.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said she has a “good relationship” with her predecessor Jeremy Hunt.

“I may not be particularly impressed with the state of the public finances that he left me, but I do recognise that after Kwasi Kwarteng, he had a tough job to do as well,” she told BBC Radio 5 listeners.

She adds that if there were one person she could “pick up the phone to now” it would be Alistair Darling, who delivered Labour’s last budget in 2010.

The veteran politician died last year at the age of 70. He served in cabinet for 13 years under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, working as chancellor during the 2008 financial crisis.

“I hope that he would be proud of what I’m doing as the next Labour chancellor after him,” Ms Reeves said.