Chancellor Rachel Reeves will deliver the first Labour Budget in 14 years on October 30.
She is the UK’s first female Chancellor so it will be a historic moment when she stands up at the Despatch Box.
But when should viewers and listeners tune in for the start of her speech in the packed Commons Chamber?
The Chancellor delivers the Budget, when it’s on a Wednesday, after Prime Minister’s Questions.
PMQs starts at midday and is scheduled to last 30 minutes.
The Speaker, who currently is Sir Lindsay Hoyle, often allows PMQs to overrun to allow more backbench MPs to put questions to the Prime Minister.
But normally, it finishes quite on time on Budget day.
Between debates, the Speaker also often allows a short while for MPs to leave or arrive in the Chamber.
However, as the Commons will be full for PMQs, the Budget normally starts promptly.
So to be safe, set your Budget alarm for 12.30pm, though it could be some minutes later.
As for how long the speech will be, it could be quite lengthy as Ms Reeves is due to pack in a large amount of information.
The Budget is expected to include a string of tax rises including many which will hit London hard.
They could also include an increase in National Insurance for employers, in capital gains tax, in inheritance tax, a freeze on the thresholds for paying income tax, as well as changes to stamp duty.
Ms Reeves is also set to outline how she expects the Government to make billions of pounds in savings, including on the benefits bill.
She is expected to be seeking a package of some £40 billion, mainly from tax cuts, as well as Whitehall savings, to invest billions more in Government priorities such as the NHS and infrastructure.
The Chancellor is set to re-write her fiscal rules to allow her to borrow billions more for her investment programme.
She will again seek to blame the Tories for an alleged £22 billion black hole in the public finances, a claim they deny, and will update the nation with projections by the Office for Budget Responsibility on GDP, inflation, unemployment, annual borrowing and the debt mountain.
So, the speech may well be quite long.
But it is unlikely to make history as:
* The longest continuous Budget speech – with the record held by William Gladstone on 18 April 1853, lasting 4 hours and 45 minutes.
* The overall longest Budget speech – Benjamin Disraeli’s speech in 1852 lasted 5 hours but included a break.
* The shortest Budget speech – Disraeli’s 1867 Budget Speech lasted only 45 Minutes.
* Possibly the most disastrous, certainly in recent years – Kwasi Kwarteng’s “mini Budget” in September 2022 which was followed by economic chaos and the collapse of the Liz Truss government.
Ms Reeves also has a long way to go to get close to the highest number of Budget speeches, a record chalked up by Gladstone’s twelve.
