The scene was set before the speech had even begun. Two yellow buses – one completely hollowed out – were positioned as if they had just rammed into each other.

It was as if Rachel Reeves’s speech was a car crash waiting to happen.

Read deputy political editor Steph Spyro’s full piece from the speech here.

The Chancellor’s assurance she has no plans to deliver a tax-raising Budget on the scale of last year’s will do little to lower worries more taxes are on the way. Her refusal to rule out hikes means we are set for a summer of speculation, with pressure on the Left for new wealth taxes.Here is what happened when the Chancellor was put on the spot.

Responding to the Chancellor announcing that the changes to the winter fuel patment thresholds will be in place for this winter with the new thresholds to be announced at the Spending Review, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said: “This whole debacle has caused needless misery for millions of pensioners.

“We will look at the details of the changes at the Spending Review next week. In the meantime the Chancellor should apologise to all those pensioners who had to freeze this winter because of this senseless policy.”

Rachel Reeves has dismissed claims police could be forced to choose between which crimes they investigate.

The Chancellor said: “We will be increasing spending on police in the spending review next week, so that’s not a decision… or a choice that I would recognise.”

The letter from the police chiefs said negotiations between the Treasury and the Home Office were going “poorly”.

It read: “A settlement that fails to address our inflation and pay pressures would entail stark choices about which crimes we no longer prioritise.”

Last week, senior police officers – including Sir Mark – wrote a letter in the Times calling for “serious investment” in the spending review, which will set out the Government’s day-to-day departmental budgets for the next three years.

Tory Shadow Treasury Minister Gareth Davies said: “Rachel Reeves is scrambling to salvage her failing economic plan after the Prime Minister has made U-turn after U-turn, punching holes in her credibility.

“She needed to do better than copying and pasting announcements made by the previous Conservative Government. The country is not falling for their lies anymore. Britain deserves better.

“Only the Conservatives believe in sound money, low tax and the ingenuity of our entrepreneurs.”

The Chancellor has confirmed for the first time that the changes to winter fuel payments – so that more pensioners get the payments – will come into force this year. In other words, pensioners will get the money this winter, and won’t have to wait until next year.

We still don’t know how many pensioners will be eligible, but we do know it will be more than currently get the payments.

Originally, every pensioner was eligible but the Chancellor’s means-testing policy announced last year meant more than nine million lost the money.

The Chancellor is asked whether she will reveal in next week’s spending review which pensioners will get their winter fuel payments back.

She says “the economy is in better shape” and “we will be making changes” – and confirms that the changes will come into effect in time for this coming winter. But she says she will reveal the full details as soon as possible and doesn’t say when.

Rachel Reeves dismisses concerns that the UK will be hit by Donald Trump’s 50% steel tariffs, saying the deal agreed between the UK and US will reduce tariffs to zero (although she doesn’t mention that there is no date for when this will happen)

“We made decisions in the budget to increase taxes by 40bn, I have absolutely no intention of repeating a budget on that scale again. I’ve now drawn a line under that economic mismanagement… I’ll be allocating funds based on the settlement last year.”

“We will be increasing spending on police in the spending review next week”

The Chancellor is asked about a memo from Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner who called for tax rises.

Ms Reeves said: “Angela Rayner had ideas around £3 billion in tax changes”.

But she makes it clear she won’t adopt the ideas.

Rachel Reeves is asked by Sky News journalist Beth Rigby to be “honest” and say whether she will put up taxes or slash spending for some departments.

She says she will explain how everything will be paid for in her Budget in the autumn.

However she says “the most important thing we can do to have money for public services is to grow the economy”

The Chancellor acknowledges she has had to say No to colleagues to stick within the fiscal rules. But she says higher mortgage costs would be the consequences for ordinary people of breaking these rules.

Answering a question from Manchester’s local newspaper, the Chancellor declines to comment on whether there could be new long distance rail lines and says today’s announcement is partly about schemes linking towns to big cities.

But there could be news next week about measures to connect big cities with each other, she hints.

She is asked if the Government will build the long-awaited “Crossrail for the North” scheme, linking Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds.

The answer is no – at least not today. Rachel Reeves says there is “more to come” next week, so we’ll have to see what happens.

As Rachel Reeves claims the government “saved” British steel, the Conservative leader tweets…..

The Chancellor has had weeks of headlines about where cuts will fall in next week’s spending review. She is using today’s landmark speech to try and change the narrative, with good news – not just painful constrictions on spending – on the way.She says: “Next week there will be more to come. This Government promised change and we are keeping that promise.”

The Chancellor is watched by Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander

East Midlands

£2.0 billion

Designing a new mass transit system to connect Derby and Nottingham, encompassing road, rail and bus improvements across the Trent Arc corridor.

Tees Valley

£1.0 billion

£60m for the Platform 3 extension at Middlesborough station, unblocking the local network.

West of England

£0.8 billion

£150m to improve rail infrastructure across the region, including funding to support WECA’s ambitions for increased frequency of services between Brabazon and the city centre

£200m for Mass transit development between Bristol, Bath, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset.

North East

£1.8 billion

Metro extension linking Newcastle and Sunderland via Washington, serving one of the largest advanced manufacturing zones in the UK.

South Yorkshire

£1.5 billion

£530m to renew the tram network, providing a fleet of new, replacement vehicles, modernising tram stops, as well maintenance to improve reliability.

£350m to reform South Yorkshire’s buses, with franchised buses operating in Sheffield, Doncaster and Rotherham by 2027 and across the whole of South Yorkshire by 2029.

Liverpool City Region

£1.6 billion

£100m for 3 new bus rapid transit routes, to the Liverpool John Lennon Airport, Everton stadium and Anfield.

Buying a brand-new fleet of buses for the city region’s franchised bus network, beginning with St Helens and the Wirral in 2026 and then Sefton, Knowsley, North and South Liverpool in 2027.

West Midlands

£2.4 billion

Metro extension connecting Birmingham City Centre to new sports quarter, unlocking £3bn investment from private investors

This is the first phase of new mass transit from East Birmingham to North Solihull.

Greater Manchester

£2.5 billion

Major infrastructure projects to unlock new homes, jobs and better connect communities, including growing and transforming the Metrolink tram network, with new tram stops in Bury, Manchester and Oldham and Metrolink extension to Stockport

A fully electric Bee Network, with zero emission public transport network across bikes, bus and tram by 2030, including purchase of 1,000 new electric buses.

The Chancellor announces changes to the so-called “Green Book”, a Treasury document that evaluates proposed spending schemes.

It currently judges a scheme, such as a new railway, to be value for money based on the impact it makes to the economy.

The trouble with this is that you help the economy most by investing in the region that is already richest – London and the south east. And this, in turn, helps to ensure London remains richer than the rest of the country.

Regional council leaders and mayors have argued for decades that new rules are needed so that their regions get their fair share of funding and have a chance to catch up.

Ms Reeves hasn’t given full details of the change but she’s said details will be announced next week. It’s clear that she is going to change the rules so that regions outside London get a fairer share of money.

Rachel Reeves says she will next week confirm over £300bn of extra spending across five years, with the highest level of investment since the 1970s.

The Chancellor has told her audience: “Not every department will get everything that they want next week. and I have had to say no to things that I want to do too.”

But she insists the Conservatives are to blame.

The Chancellor says Nigel Farage and Reform’s spending plans would damage the economy in the same way Liz Truss did when she was Prime Minister.

Today’s announcement includes cash for a number of areas where support for Reform has grown.

Here is Andy Burnham making his speech a few minutes ago.

The Chancellor tells her Greater Manchester audience that her announcement is part of a plan to grow the economy “to make you and your family better off”.

She says there is a “sense of injustice” that some areas of the country are wealthier than others.

The Chancellor is speaking to highlight funding for transport schemes, which will be part of her Spending Review to be published on June 11.

She wants to highlight £15 billion in “capital” spending, which means spending on big infrastructure projects.

Next week we’ll get the bad news, which is real terms cuts in day-to-day spending (meaning a cut once inflation is taken into account) for many government departments. Health and defence and expected to get increases, but other services are expected to be ordered to make savings.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has begun her speech.

Greater Manchester’s Labour mayor Andy Burnham is pretty pleased as he’s got £2.5 billion today for new buses and trams.

Andy Burnham, the Labour Mayor for Greater Manchester, is introducing Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

Former Cabinet minister Sir Simon Clarke wrote on X: “Today’s transport announcement is just a reheating of the one made by Rishi Sunak in late 2023 – *finally* being recommitted to by Labour after a year of pointless delay.”

Journalists have taken their seats. Factory employees are lined up behind the Chancellor’s plinth and cameras will soon start rolling.

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham will speak for five minutes. Rachel Reeves is then set to give a speech for 15 minutes before taking questions from the media.

Ben Houchen, the Tory Mayor of Tees Valley, said Labour was simply honouring a pledge made by Rishi Sunak with the funding announcement.

He wrote on social media: “After Rishi Sunak announced this money in late 2023, we got on with the job of developing plans to revolutionise our transport system.

“When Labour won the election all this was put on pause and we were stopped in our tracks.

“Finally, over 18 months after Rishi first gave us the money, the Labour Government has now unpaused the money confirmed the funding we were given back in 2023. This is the right decision.”

This is the backdrop for Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s speech which will kick off soon.

Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride said: “Labour’s promises lack any serious plan. This week’s defence announcement is a prime example – bold words but no answers.

“They’ve betrayed pensioners, farmers, and hardworking families, all while making empty tax promises that simply don’t add up.

“Between Labour and Reform, it’s a race to promise everything to everyone – with no way to pay for it. Britain deserves better than broken pledges and reckless leadership.”

Rachel Reeves is announcing new train, metro and bus schemes costing £15 billion for cities such as Newcastle, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and more.

We have the full list – you can see it here.

Good morning!

I’m Steph Spyro, the Express’s Deputy Political Editor. I’ll be in the room when Rachel Reeves delivers her speech later this morning. We’re expecting it to start at around 9.30am.

There’ll be a livestream for you to watch at the top of this blog. My colleagues and I will, of course, be bringing you the latest through these blog updates too.

If you could ask the Chancellor one thing, what would it be?

The Chancellor’s announcement today is the first from the spending review due next Wednesday that will set out the Government’s day-to-day departmental budgets for the next three years and investment budgets for the next four.

The review is expected to be a difficult one for the Government, with the Institute for Fiscal Studies saying the Chancellor faces “unavoidably tough decisions” as the demands of NHS and defence spending raise the prospect of cuts in other departments.

Writing in the Manchester Evening News, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the announcement was “about pushing power out of Westminster and putting it back in the hands of communities who know what they need”.

He said: “One thing is crystal clear. We will not get the renewal we need by focussing only on the South East and ignoring the huge potential of the rest of the nation.

“For too long, the mindset of previous governments has been to hoard power and potential behind the walls of Westminster. The result? Proud places across the country have been neglected and left behind.”

Rachel Reeves is set unveil £15.6 billion of investment in public transport in the North and Midlands.

The Chancellor will argue that Britain “cannot rely on a handful of places forging ahead of the rest of the country” and champion a “new economic model – driven by investment in all parts of the country”.

She is also expected to confirm that next week’s spending review will include changes to the rules in the Treasury’s Green Book that determine whether projects receive funding.

Green Book rules have been criticised in some quarters for favouring investment in London and the South East.

Ms Reeves is expected to argue that changing the rules will ensure the Government “gives every region a fair hearing when it comes to investments”.

But it will also mean more money for areas of the North and Midlands, including the so-called “Red Wall”, where Labour MPs face an electoral challenge from Reform UK.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to make her speech in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, at around 9.20am.

She will then take questions from the media.