Budget 2024: From minimum wage to national insurance, what will be announced today?

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to deliver the Labour Party’s first budget in 14 years this afternoon, setting out an agenda which is likely to define her party’s time in office.

Central to the Chancellor’s plans is a vow to put ‘more pounds in people’s pockets’, fix the NHS and grow the economy, despite warnings of tough decisions to come.

A 6.7% hike in the minimum wage to £12.21 an hour is among the measures included, which will mean an extra £1,400 a year for a full-time worker earning the main minimum wage rate, known as the national living wage, from April.

But this will be offset by raising national insurance contributions from employers, which businesses have argued will make it harder to hire staff and create jobs, negating the pay-rise to workers.

Also expected is the widely-criticised slashing of winter fuel allowance to millions of pensioners, as part of a commitment to fill a ‘£22bn black hole’ in public services left by the Tories.

The government is also also expected to raise the price of vapes and tobacco as part of a drive to stop young people smoking, and has pledged an additional £3bn annual boost to the armed forces.

The NHS will recieve a much-needed boost in funding too, but the Chancellor has warned it may not to enough to undo ’14 years of damage’ inflicted by the Conservatives.