Healey will present the Budget on Wednesday, 28 October 2026, and is scheduled for a media round on Thursday, 29 October to defend it.
Healey told the Times he wants to back businesses making a profit and the entrepreneurs who challenge the status quo.
The commentary cites a rise in employers' national insurance contributions, a lower threshold for those payments, a higher minimum wage and extra inheritance tax on family businesses.
John Healey, the chancellor, presents his Budget on Wednesday, 28 October 2026, and has already set out its tone. In an interview with Patrick Maguire of the Times, he said the Budget would be designed to bring relief to what he called 'bloody-minded entrepreneurs', and he praised people who keep going through sheer bloody-mindedness.
“I want to be a chancellor who backs business in Britain making a profit.”
Healey argued that a business which is not making a profit has nothing to reinvest, and that firms which thrive tend to put their earnings back into their own operations. He said he wants such companies to grow in Britain and stay here.
Healey conceded that government has made life harder for companies over the past two years. He said he had heard the complaints directly from businesses that met him in one-to-one and round-table sessions.
“I have recognised that in recent times there's been a lot of pressure: employment law, regulation, tax, input costs, supply chains.”
He suggested that cutting the cost of living for business matters as much as cutting the real cost of living for families, and said he is conscious of both as he prepares measures for firms and households. The interview contained no real detail on the measures he will present to MPs.
The Budget introduced by Rachel Reeves included a rise in employers' national insurance contributions and a lower threshold at which those payments start. It also brought a higher minimum wage, additional workers' rights and extra inheritance tax on family businesses.
A commentary in The Independent argues these measures damaged jobs, profits, investment, growth prospects and confidence, and undercut earlier pledges by Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves that they would not be seen as anti-business. Starmer and Reeves were replaced in No 10 and No 11 in a leadership change in July, with Burnham now prime minister and Healey chancellor.
Burnham and Healey have avoided criticising their predecessors in public, but the commentary says that is about to change with the Budget. It holds that Reeves bears chief responsibility for poor relations between Labour and the business community.
Healey is due to take part in a media round on Thursday, 29 October, defending the Budget after presenting it the day before. Its specific measures had not been set out at the time of the interview.
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Chancellor John Healey is framing the Budget due on Wednesday, 28 October 2026 as a bid to repair ties with business. In a Times interview, he said he wants to back companies that make a profit and the entrepreneurs who challenge the status quo.
AI text based on reports by The Independent and The Guardian. Published .