But speculation is swirling about a potential challenge to Starmer’s leadership from within his party, and analysts say a misfiring budget could add to the sense of crisis within the government. Then, the entire fiscal forecast from the independent watchdog the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), including details of the budget’s main measures, was published online half an hour before Reeves’ statement. Reeves also abolished a much-hated cap on benefits paid out to families with more than two children. She also announced measures to ease the financial pressure on households, by freezing rail fares and cutting levies on household energy bills. But the chaos non gamstop casinos that has engulfed the government during weeks of mixed messaging and political infighting continued up to the final moment.
The BBC is in multiple languages
This statistic is using original data from the Office for National Statistics and includes copyright material from © Crown, licensed under the Open Government License v3.0. The north of England has many mountains and lakes, like Windermere, the largest lake in England. A dynamic port city with a colourful past, Belfast is a vibrant cultural hub on Northern Ireland’s eastern coast. A quirky seaside city filled with diverse cuisine, vintage shopping and adrenaline-fuelled adventure.
- These tensions relaxed somewhat during the late 20th century, when devolved assemblies were introduced in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
- Due to its relatively southern location, England continues to rank as the warmest country in the UK.
- This month also experienced the highest monthly rainfall in the UK since before 2014, with England, Wales, and Scotland suffering widespread flooding.
- In 2024, the average salary for full-time workers in the UK was 37,430 British pounds a year, up from 34,963 in the previous year.
- Central bank interest rates were raised globally in response to the problem, possibly putting an end to the era of cheap money that has defined monetary policy since the financial crash of 2008.
- Throughout this month, workers across various industry sectors were involved in industrial disputes, such as nurses, train drivers, and driving instructors.
Since World War II, however, the United Kingdom’s most prominent exports have been cultural, including literature, theatre, film, television, and popular music that draw on all parts of the country. Perhaps Britain’s greatest export has been the English language, now spoken in every corner of the world as one of the leading international mediums of cultural and economic exchange. Another way of measuring inflation is to strip out the volatility of energy and food prices and look at the underlying core inflation rate. As of December 2024, this was 3.2 percent, slightly higher than the overall CPI rate, but more aligned with the overall figure than it was in 2022 and 2023.
Hitting fiscal targets, such as reducing the national debt, will require a careful balancing of the books from the current government, and the possibility for either spending cuts or tax rises. Although Labour ruled out raising the main government tax sources, Income Tax, National Insurance, and VAT, at the 2024 election, they did raise National Insurance for employers (rather than employees) and also cut Winter Fuel allowances for large numbers of pensioners. Less than a year after implementing cuts to Winter Fuel, the government performed a U-Turn on the issue, and will make it widely available by the winter of 2025. The archipelago formed by Great Britain and the numerous smaller islands is as irregular in shape as it is diverse in geology and landscape.
Average weekly earning growth in the UK compared with inflation 2015-2025
The peoples who, over the centuries, have hewed an existence from this Atlantic extremity of Eurasia have put their own imprint on the environment, and the ancient and distinctive palimpsest of their field patterns and settlements complements the natural diversity. The next election doesn’t have to be held until 2029, and the government continues to hope that its economic measures will spur higher growth and ease financial pressures. The budget is a high-stakes moment for Reeves and Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who is facing mounting concern from Labour lawmakers over his dire poll ratings. Opinion polls consistently put Labour well behind the hard-right Reform UK party led by Nigel Farage.
Research and statistics
In 2025 there were 197 restaurants with a Michelin Star; 55 of them consider their cuisine to be ‘Modern British’.508 Sweet foods are common within British cuisine, and there is a long list of British desserts. British cuisine has absorbed the cultural influence of those who have settled in Britain, producing hybrid dishes, such as chicken tikka masala.511 The British have embraced world cuisine and regularly eat recipes or fast food from other European countries, the Caribbean and Asia. Between 1961 and 1990, temperatures in England averaged nine degrees Celsius, and from 2013 to 2022, average temperatures in the country had increased to 10.3 degrees Celsius. Due to its relatively southern location, England continues to rank as the warmest country in the UK. A line running from the mouth of the River Exe, in the southwest, to that of the Tees, in the northeast, is a crude expression of this division. The course of the 700-foot (213-metre) contour, or of the boundary separating the older rocks of the north and west from the younger southeastern strata, provides a more accurate indication of the extent of the highlands.
The government was elected in a landslide victory in July 2024 on a promise not to raise taxes on income for working people, and Reeves acknowledged that some of the budget’s £26 billion ($34 billion) in tax hikes broke the spirit of that pledge and would face criticism. Since leaving the EU most disputes under UK-EU agreements are addressed through consultation between the parties. In 1982 Argentina invaded the British territories of South Georgia and the Falkland Islands, leading to the 10-week Falklands War in which Argentine forces were defeated. The inhabitants of the islands strongly favour British sovereignty, expressed in a 2013 referendum. From 1984 the British economy was helped by the inflow of substantial North Sea oil revenues.114 Another British Overseas Territory, Gibraltar,115 is a key military base; a referendum in 2002 on shared sovereignty with Spain was rejected.