UK Politics Charts @UKPolChart

Worth knowing: Healey was Defence Secretary until he became Chancellor in July. Now he has to fund the plans he helped make.

Tomorrow's Budget will set out a path to 3% of GDP on defence by 2030, the PM says. 🛡️ Planned for 2027-28: 2.7%
🎯 New target, 2030: 3%
🤝 NATO pledge, 2035: 3.5% The cost: an extra £17.3bn in 2029-30, according to the OBR. The question for Healey tomorrow: where does it come from? #budget2026 #nato

Why the change? Labour pledged to scrap youth rates. The Resolution Foundation warns rises faster than typical earnings risk pricing young people out of jobs. 981,000 16–24 year olds are not in education, employment or training (ONS, Apr–Jun 2026).

🚨🇬🇧 The gap between the adult and youth minimum wage has shrunk every year since 2024. If tomorrow's reported rates go ahead, it widens again. 21+ vs 18–20, per hour:
2024: £2.84
2025: £2.21
2026: £1.86
2027: £1.93 (reported) Both rates are set to rise 3.9%, and the same % on a bigger number = more pence.

REPORTED: Healey to raise the National Living Wage to £13.20 an hour in Wednesday's Budget. 💷 21+: £12.71 → £13.20
💷 18–20: £10.85 → £11.27 That's about £955 a year extra for a full-time worker, before tax. Same 3.9% as the expected state pension rise, and just above inflation (3.5%). (The Times. Not yet confirmed.)

Kwarteng's September 2022 "Growth Plan" was a mini-budget rather than a full Budget, as the graphic notes.

Javid and Zahawi never delivered a Budget. Javid resigned weeks before his first was due in March 2020, and Zahawi only served from July to September 2022

John Healey is the 8th Chancellor since the 2016 Brexit vote. Two of them never delivered a Budget at all. One only managed a mini-budget, and you probably remember how that went. Wednesday is Healey's first. Which Budget since 2016 do you think mattered most? 👇

ons.gov.uk/economy/govern…

UK debt just passed £3 trillion for the first time. £3,005,000,000,000 📊 94% of GDP
👤 Roughly £43,000 for every person in the UK
💷 £97.8bn borrowed since April, £6bn more than forecast This is the backdrop to Wednesday's Budget. (ONS)

Budget is Wednesday. Which numbers matter to you most?

The numbers 👇 👴 Full new state pension: £13,036 🧾 Tax-free allowance: £12,570 (frozen until 2031) 📏 Over by: £466 💷 Tax at 20%: ~£93 a year with no other income Unless, as expected, the Budget raises the allowance for pensioners. Rise is 3.9% because earnings beat inflation (3.5%).

Where Rosebank stands: 🛢️ 350m+ barrels, the UK's largest untapped oil field 📈 ~69,000 barrels a day at peak, about 10% of expected UK North Sea oil output 💷 £8.7bn investment ⚖️ Original approval ruled unlawful in 2025 for not assessing emissions from burning the oil. Ministers now deciding.

@BBCNews The numbers the Chancellor walks in with on Wednesday: 📈 Inflation: 3.5% 💷 Borrowing: £1.9bn over forecast in September 🏦 Debt: just over £3tn 👷 Unemployment: 4.7% Sources: ONS. Full breakdown on Wednesday.

Core inflation (stripping out food and energy) rose to 2.8%. Services inflation hit 3.7%. Next figures: 18 November. Source: ONS, Sept 2026 CPI

🚨UK inflation jumped to 3.5% in September, up from 3.1% in August. That's the highest this year and well above the Bank of England's 2% target. Biggest upward push: motor fuels. Two days before the Budget, the Chancellor's cost-of-living headache just got bigger.