Rachel Reeves should consider welfare cuts in budget, IFS says

Thinktank urges chancellor to take bold' action on benefits and pensions to placate jittery financial markets

• Exclusive: Reeves says higher taxes on wealthy part of budget story'

Britain's leading tax and spending experts have urged Rachel Reeves to consider announcing billions of pounds in welfare cuts in next month's budget to help placate jittery financial markets.

After the chancellor gave her strongest hint yet that spending cuts were under consideration, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) called on Reeves to take bold" action to plug a potential 22bn shortfall in the government finances.