Autumn budget 2025: What is Rachel Reeves’ plan for the economy?
Just hours after Rachel Reeves sets out the budget to parliament, this webinar brought together a team of Institute for Government (IfG) experts to share their instant and essential analysis of the chancellor’s plans.
Who are the winners and losers of Reeves’s tax and spending announcements? How will her measures affect economic growth? Has the chancellor finally set a coherent tax strategy? And what challenges now lie ahead for Keir Starmer’s government?
To answer these questions and more, this budget day webinar from the IfG brought together an expert line up featuring Dan Haile, Jill Rutter, and Giles Wilkes. The webinar was chaired by Dr Hannah White.
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The Covid Inquiry: What does Module II say about government decision making and political governance?
On 20 November 2025, the UK Covid-19 Inquiry will publish its second report. This module focuses on political and administrative decision making during the pandemic, examining how key decisions were made across government, and civil service performance. This report will also include perspectives from Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
In a rapid reaction webinar the following day, our expert IfG panel unpacked the report’s findings and explored their implications for future governance:
Tim Durrant, Programme Director for the IfG Ministers work programme
Stuart Hoddinott, Associate Director at the IfG
Akash Paun, Programme Director for the IfG Devolution work programme
Alex Thomas, Programme Director for the IfG Civil Service work programme
The webinar was chaired by Dr Hannah White, Director and CEO of the Institute for Government.
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In conversation with John Swinney MSP, First Minister of Scotland
Scotland is just six months away from May’s crucial parliamentary election, with First Minister John Swinney preparing to lead the SNP into one of the most unpredictable campaigns since the party entered government almost 19 years ago.
On 19 November, the Institute for Government was delighted to welcome Scotland’s First Minister to discuss his priorities ahead of the 2026 Scottish parliament election, the political context in Scotland ahead of the crucial UK budget, and the SNP’s vision for Scotland’s constitutional future.
John Swinney was in conversation with Jill Rutter, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government, followed by a Q&A with the live and online audience.
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The UK-EU ‘reset': Six months on
At May’s UK-EU summit, Keir Starmer and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled a new Common Understanding between the EU and the UK.
The government hailed a new “deal” with the EU which included an agreement on fisheries and a joint commitment to negotiate a ‘youth experience scheme’, as well as new arrangements for agriculture, emissions trading, energy cooperation and defence. Many of these changes will involve the UK accepting dynamic alignment, with its potential role in “decision-shaping” to be defined.
Six months on, how much progress has been made? Have new stumbling blocks emerged? And now the government has started to highlight the economic consequences of Brexit, will it start to seek an even closer relationship?
To explore these questions and more, we were joined by our expert panel:
Baroness Ashton, former High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and member of House of Lords and European Affairs Committee
Professor Anand Menon, Director of UK in a Changing Europe
Calum Miller MP, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson (Foreign Affairs)
Sir Ivan Rogers, former UK Permanent Representative to the EU
The event was chaired by Jill Rutter, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government.
We would like to thank UK in a Changing Europe for kindly supporting this event.
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How successfully have Labour run public services?
Poor public service performance was a key reason for Labour’s victory in the 2024 election. Following the new government’s first multi-year spending review and a major reshuffle, this event brough together a panel of experts to discuss how successfully Labour has managed public services since coming to office.
This event brought together a panel of experts to discuss these key questions:
What was Labour’s public service inheritance?
How much progress has the government made on public services since the election?
What impact with the spending review have on public service performance?
What are the biggest public service challenges that need to be addressed over the rest of the parliament?
What are the implications for the budget?
As the Institute for Government published the latest edition of Performance Tracker, written in partnership with the Nuffield Foundation, which featured new analysis on the performance of public services, Amber Dellar, Stuart Hoddinott and Cassia Rowland, presented the key findings. They were joined by Stephen Bush, associate editor and columnist at the Financial Times.
This event was chaired by Nick Davies, Programme Director at the Institute for Government, with an introduction by Mark Franks at the Nuffield Foundation.
This event was kindly supported by the Nuffield Foundation.
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