<p>Today, Laura and Paddy look ahead to the Spring Statement after Rachel Reeves ruled out "tax and spend" policies, signalling that she will neither raise taxes nor government budgets.</p><p>The chancellor has been speaking to Laura for a BBC documentary called ‘The Making of a Chancellor, which you can listen to on BBC Sounds: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00298hq</p><p>Also Paddy tries out a new metaphor.</p><p>You can now listen to Newscast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Newscast”. It works on most smart speakers.</p><p>You can join our Newscast online community here: https://discord.gg/m3YPUGv9</p><p>New episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bit.ly/3ENLcS1</p><p>Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. It was presented by Laura Kuenssberg and Paddy O’Connell . It was made by Lewis Vickers with Adam Chowdhury. Digital production by Sophie Millward. The technical producer was Rohan Madison. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The editor is Sam Bonham.</p>