Following weeks of speculation and mixed signals, Britain's center-left government will deliver a budget Wednesday aimed at pleasing financial markets, businesses and jaded voters — an all-but-impossible task for an already unpopular administration.

In her second annual budget since the Labour Party returned to power after 14 years with a landslide election victory in July 2024, Treasury chief Rachel Reeves is set to tell lawmakers that more tax-raising measures are necessary to plug a hole in the public finances.