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Newspaper headlines: 'Healey offers cold comfort' and 'A £100 trick or treat?'

Thursday's papers focus entirely on John Healey's first Budget that included £100 for energy bills and a bank tax.

· 372 words· updated October 29, 2026 at 01:29 AM

Chancellor John Healey is on all of the front pages. Both the Financial Times and the Times describe his Budget as "modest" . A senior government figure told the FT the Budget was "not radical, but we don't think the markets would have worn something bigger". Similarly, the Guardian says Healey delivered "a low key speech designed with febrile bond markets in mind".

There's a harsher verdict in the Daily Mail . It says the Budget was "a snoozer" . In an editorial the paper says that instead of being a blueprint for national renewal the Budget was a holding statement, putting off every major decision facing the country.

The Daily Telegraph and the Sun say Healey has raised taxes on banks, savers, and landlords, while failing to tackle Britain's ballooning welfare bill. "All the chancellor had to offer was the sound of the cans being kicked down the road," is the Sun's verdict.

On its front page the Daily Express highlights the Conservative leader , Kemi Badenoch's assessment that the Budget was "not bold enough." The paper has also spoken to the former Tory defence secretary, Sir Ben Wallace, who accuses Healey of putting "benefits before bullets".

There's a more positive assessment from the Daily Mirror , which titles its coverage "For the Many, Not the Few". The paper says Healey has unveiled a raft of measures to help cash-strapped families and struggling companies. However the Mirror's columnist, Kevin Maguire, asks if the chancellor could have been braver and more radical, with a bigger tax raid on the banks and oil and gas companies.

The Guardian is one of the papers highlighting Nigel Farage's claim that he was absent from the Commons on Budget day to avoid a "physical altercation" with another MP in a row about seating arrangements. Farage said a green paper slip, saving him a seat, had been removed. The Guardian says that's because the slip wasn't properly stamped with the date.

And the Mirror reports that a grandmother's jewellery collection, discovered in a dusty attic during a house clearance, has sold at auction for more than £500,000. The hoard, found in the town of Malvern in Worcestershire, included pieces from the 19th century through to modern times.

Gathered from external sources. Rights to this text belong to whoever originally published it.

Thursday, October 29, 2026

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