What does success look like for Labour's Budget?

Just days before she delivers Labour's first Budget in 14 years, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said that funding deals have now been finalised with all government departments.

"There are no balloons left in the chief secretary's office – the balloons have been burst," she told BBC Radio 5 Live, in reference to the Whitehall tradition of popping balloons representing each department as budgets are agreed.

When Reeves unveils her Budget next week, she will seek to shift the world's sixth-biggest economy "onto a new course", involving big increases in public spending and tax, said Reuters. It is expected to include "an array of revenue-raising changes" to plug a £40 billion hole in the public finances without breaking the party's pledge to cover day-to-day spending without additional borrowing.

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"Taxes on capital gains and dividends, inheritances, non-domiciled residents, fuel and possibly private pensions are also on the table," said Reuters, despite Britain's tax burden being at the highest level "since shortly after World War Two".

What did the commentators say?

Whatever measures are announced, Labour should expect "adverse polls" in its early days in power, said Robert Shrimsley in the Financial Times. "They are a given." The other given is that "first Budgets are where chancellors do their worst things".

"But Labour's core mandate was restoration of public services and the social fabric," said Shrimsley. "Voters knew taxes would rise but [Keir] Starmer's implicit promise was that Labour would be moderate in this." So long as the chancellor "does not scare the markets or do too much to deter investment, Reeves may as well front-load the pain".

A Budget characterised by "high spending, tax and borrowing to invest – the last made possible by a redefinition of debt – is expected". But Reeves promised to "fix the foundations" of the economy, and she would be "unwise to disappoint". She must "live with attacks" over the high tax burden in the hope she can "pare it back later".

Two "fundamental but straightforward" questions should guide the chancellor's thinking, said Labour MP and former shadow chancellor John McDonnell in The Guardian. "The first is what society do you want to create? The second is what are the economic measures that will aid its creation?"

Labour's "historic mission" has been to build a society with "decent wages, access to health services and education not dependent on what you could pay, and housing you could afford" – and, most importantly, "a safety net" to protect the most vulnerable. "Any budget under a Labour government since then should be measured on its contribution to achieving this mission."

What next?

Speculation is still growing over which taxes might rise next week, as Labour promises to stick to its manifesto pledge that it would not increase taxes on "working people", including National Insurance, income tax and VAT.

But there has been "a lack of clarity" over how the government defines "working people", said the BBC. On Thursday, Starmer told Sky News he did not consider someone who works but gets their income from assets as well, such as shares or property, to be a working person. "They wouldn't come within my definition," he said.

He later told reporters a working person is someone who "works for a living and through that gets their income". This was a "very broad" definition, he acknowledged, adding he had in mind someone who earns a living and has savings but who doesn't "have the ability to sort of routinely write a big cheque if they get into difficulties".