Finance (No. 2) Bill: Second Reading

Parliament voted on 16 December 2025 to give the Finance (No. 2) Bill its Second Reading, allowing Labour's autumn Budget measures to proceed to detailed parliamentary scrutiny. The vote passed by 341 ayes to 195 noes. Second Reading is the stage at which the House of Commons votes on the general principles of a bill, before it moves to line-by-line examination in committee.

The Bill puts into law a range of tax and spending measures announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in her Budget of 26 November 2025. These include changes to inheritance tax reliefs for agricultural and business property, increases to remote gambling duty rates, reforms to the loan charge, increases to the national living wage taking effect from April 2026, and a continuation of frozen income tax and National Insurance thresholds extending into the end of the decade. The measures are intended to raise additional revenue to fund public services and reduce borrowing as a share of GDP.

Labour MPs voted unanimously in favour, with 299 Labour and 36 Labour and Co-operative members backing the Bill and none opposing. The Conservatives (103 votes against), Liberal Democrats (66), Reform UK (7), the Scottish National Party (6), the Democratic Unionist Party (4), Plaid Cymru (3), and the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (1) all voted against. Four independents backed the Bill and three opposed it. The Conservative amendment to reject the Bill at Second Reading, moved by shadow Chancellor Sir Mel Stride, was therefore defeated. The Bill subsequently passed its Third Reading on 11 March 2026 by 292 to 161.