Rachel Reeves faces a six-month deadline to secure her job: Concerned Labour Members of Parliament send a clear message to the Chancellor as worries grow about her proposal to cut government spending by £15 billion.

Rachel Reeves is facing pressure to secure her position as she deals with the challenge of cutting state spending by £15 billion. Labour MPs are becoming increasingly impatient with her approach.

The Chancellor is set to reveal more substantial cuts in the upcoming Spring Statement following unexpected financial setbacks. She had to borrow an additional £20 billion over the first 11 months of the fiscal year due to rising public sector wages and increasing welfare expenses.

Senior party sources say that if the economy has not sparked into life by the time of the Autumn Budget, Ms Reeves will have ‘run out of road’.

Initially, the Chancellor anticipated a surplus of £10 billion in the economy by this stage, known as her ‘fiscal headroom.’ However, slow economic growth has left the Treasury with a debt nearing £5 billion. This situation calls for implementing cuts of at least £15 billion to meet her initial target.

The fiscal rules state day-to-day government spending must be paid for out of taxation, not borrowing, and stipulate debt must fall as a share of national income by the end of this Parliament.

But her £25 billion Budget raid on employers’ National Insurance last year hit business confidence and strangled growth, causing government borrowing costs to soar.

A source said: ‘If we continue on this trajectory she will have three options to avoid a Liz Truss-style market turmoil – cut spending further, raise taxes or fiddle her fiscal rules to appear solvent. None of those will be politically acceptable and she will be at the end of the road.’

Defence expenditure has already been boosted by cutting the foreign aid budgets, while a £5 billion cut to benefits was announced just last week.

In an article for today’s Mail on Sunday, the Chancellor pledges to keep ‘an iron grip on the country’s finances’.

She writes: ‘Stability must come first. And on that bedrock of stability, we will get our economy growing.’

Ms Reeves, who said yesterday that ‘we can’t tax and spend our way to higher living standards and better public services’, is nervous about her assault on public services being compared to the ‘austerity’ of former Tory chancellor George Osborne.

The Office for Budget Responsibility is expected to halve its growth forecast for 2025 to around 1 per cent, piling more pressure on her to raise taxes again later this year to meet the fiscal rules.

The Treasury is searching for savings in addition to those from aid and welfare by targeting ‘unprotected’ spending departments such as the Home Office, Justice, Environment and local government.

The recent decision to abolish the NHS England quango could net another billion, while making more public services digital and reforming the civil service may yield another £3 billion and £2 billion respectively. 

Polling for today’s MoS shows that voters think Ms Reeves should cut spending rather than increase taxes.

Just 18 per cent want to see an increase in taxes, compared with the 40 per cent for cutting spending and 11 per cent who think public borrowing should be increased. 

However, 46 per cent expect that she will increase taxes, while 26 per cent say she will slash spending.

Yesterday, Labour’s Lord Blunkett urged Reeves to ‘loosen a little the self-imposed fiscal rules’, calling them ‘Treasury orthodoxy and monetarism at its worst’.

Shadow chancellor Mel Stride said: ‘The Labour Chancellor promised “growth, growth, growth” but since the Budget, growth is down, inflation is up, and business confidence has collapsed.

‘Labour are having to come forward with an emergency Budget on Wednesday – a situation entirely of their own making. Rachel Reeves must urgently rethink her anti-business Budget.’

Voters back benefit cuts – but fear the looming spectre of tax hikes

The public are clear what they want to hear when Rachel Reeves makes her Spring Statement on Wednesday – no more tax rises.

Last year’s £25 billion hike in employers’ National Insurance payments has stifled economic confidence, and the electorate hope that is the end of the rises.

Exclusive research, by Tory former deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft and shared with The Mail on Sunday, shows that just 18 per cent of people want an increase in taxes.

Forty per cent back cutting spending and 11 per cent think public borrowing should rise.

But 46 per cent expect Ms Reeves will increase taxes, while 26 per cent say she will slash spending.

Reforms to the benefits system are welcomed by most of those surveyed, with 62 per cent agreeing that welfare should be amended to cut costs.

Last week Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall unveiled changes aimed at saving £5 billion a year by 2030 and creating a ‘pro-work system’.

The survey shows that 39 per cent think it is too easy for people to apply for benefits. Just 18 per cent say it is not. 

The poll also reveals that Sir Keir Starmer’s recent adventures on the world stage have arrested his plunge in the polls.

He is the best Prime Minister for 34 per cent of voters, compared to just 14 per cent for Tory Kemi Badenoch.

Sir Keir has extended his lead over Ms Badenoch from 12 to 20 points since meeting Donald Trump and rallying European leaders behind Ukraine.

The PM has also benefited from Reform UK feuding which pitted leader Nigel Farage against MP Rupert Lowe. 

Asked their view of Mr Farage, more than twice as many people think ‘he just wants to get publicity and cause trouble’ as think he ‘wants to get into government and change things’.

The King receives strong backing over his support for Canada in its diplomatic battle with Mr Trump. Seventy-one per cent told researchers he was right to do so.

A total of 5,111 people were polled between March 13 and 17.