Andrew Neil tears apart Rachel Reeves with hilarious Humpty Dumpty rant

Andrew Neil has blasted Rachel Reeves for her pre-Budget speech, where she laid the groundwork for major tax rises this month. The Chancellor failed to recommit to a key Labour manifesto pledge of not raising income tax during her address from Downing Street, directing the blame to previous governments and global issues. In response, Mr Neil hit out at Ms Reeves for claiming tax hikes would be "everybody else's fault".

Speaking to Times Radio, the journalist said: "The message was simple: I have to raise a shed load of money, that means I'm going to have to break my promise not to raise income tax. But it's not my fault, it's not my doing, it's everybody else's fault. It's Brexit, it's productivity, it's Donald Trump, it's Humpty Dumpty, it's the Duke of York, it's all the King's men, but it's not me. I fixed the foundations.

"I'm going to have to increase income tax by about £25billion after raising National Insurance by £30billion last year, but it's not my fault. That's someone else's fault, someone else did that."

Mr Neil added that "even Brexit is now being dragged into it", despite "not mentioning Brexit once" in her Budget speech last year. "Maybe she didn't realise Brexit had happened," he said tongue-in-cheek.

This week, the Chancellor took the highly unusual step of making a speech three weeks before her statement on November 26 amid intense speculation over tax increases.

Ms Reeves, who insisted she would not come back for more after last year's tax-hiking Budget, warned of "hard choices" and said "we will all have to contribute".

The Chancellor said: "As I take my decisions on both tax and spend, I will do what is necessary to protect families from high inflation and interest rates, to protect our public services from a return to austerity and to ensure that the economy that we hand down to future generations is secure with debt under control.

"If we are to build the future of Britain together, we will all have to contribute to that effort.

"Each of us must do our bit for the security of our country and the brightness of its future."

Ms Reeves blamed global problems such as the tariff war triggered by US President Donald Trump and domestic issues including the budget watchdog's expected downgrade of economic productivity.