Chancellor Rachel Reeves faced scrutiny over several key claims made during her 2025 Budget speech, with fact-checkers examining statements on taxation, NHS performance, unemployment figures and housing targets.
Tax Threshold Freeze Sparks Manifesto Promise Debate
The Chancellor's decision to extend the freeze on income tax and national insurance thresholds by three years has raised questions about whether Labour has broken its manifesto commitments. Rachel Reeves claimed she had kept "every single one" of Labour's manifesto promises, despite previously suggesting that extending threshold freezes would constitute breaking these pledges.
Labour's 2024 election manifesto explicitly stated: "Labour will not increase taxes on working people, which is why we will not increase national insurance, the basic, higher, or additional rates of income tax, or VAT." However, freezing personal tax thresholds effectively increases the tax burden as inflation pushes incomes into higher tax brackets.
The government now argues that their manifesto commitments apply only to tax rates, not thresholds. Despite this interpretation, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has concluded that the Budget does breach Labour's manifesto tax promise. Ms Reeves has since acknowledged that she is "asking ordinary people to pay a little bit more."
NHS Appointments: The Full Picture
During her Budget speech, the Chancellor claimed the government had delivered 5.2 million extra NHS appointments since the general election. While technically accurate for the period between July 2024 and June 2025, this figure requires context.
Historical data reveals that 5.2 million represents a smaller increase than the previous year's 6.5 million additional appointments achieved under the Conservative government. The number of NHS appointments has shown consistent long-term growth to meet the demands of an ageing population, making the recent increase less exceptional than presented.
Unemployment Claims Under Scrutiny
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch asserted that unemployment has risen "every single month since Labour have been in office." However, Office for National Statistics data contradicts this claim, showing several small month-to-month decreases in unemployment during Labour's tenure.
While unemployment has indeed increased overall by approximately 309,000 people between May-July 2024 and July-September 2025, the pattern hasn't been consistently upward each month. It's worth noting that the ONS has cautioned about interpreting Labour Force Survey data due to lower response rates since the pandemic.
Housing Targets: Behind Schedule?
Mrs Badenoch also criticised the government's progress on house building, claiming they were "miles behind" their construction plans. Labour pledged to build 1.5 million homes in England by the end of this Parliament, but current progress suggests challenges ahead.
Official data shows only 208,600 net additional dwellings were added to England's housing stock in 2024/25. More recent estimates using Energy Performance Certificate data indicate approximately 275,600 net additional dwellings between July 2024 and November 2025 - representing just 18.4% of their 1.5 million target.
At the current rate of construction, achieving the government's housing pledge would take nearly six additional years, leading fact-checkers to rate this promise as "appears off track."
