What was in John Healey's first budget, according to Alastair Campbell on The Rest Is Politics?

Alastair Campbell described Chancellor John Healey's first budget under Prime Minister Andy Burnham as an hour-long speech framed around breathing space now and growth in every postcode. Its headline commitment was defence spending of 3% of GDP by the end of the decade and 3.5% after that, with the funding left unclear. The rest centred on energy-bill relief, AI data centres and devolving tax-raising to local areas.

• Gas standing charges are scrapped and homes in council tax bands A to D get £100 off energy bills.
• A VAT cut on electricity is paid for by a one-off tax on banks, with a 3% bank surcharge and a gambling levy funding other measures.
• A new data centre covenant lets AI data centres generate their own power if they cannot get a grid connection quickly.
• Kemi Badenoch's reply for the Conservatives amounted to asking whether that was all.

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on The Rest Is Politics (2026-10-28). Read the whole episode summary →

▸More from this episode