Rachel Reeves has set out a series of major announcements on infrastructure projects, including backing plans for a third runway at Heathrow Airport. She promised to go "further and faster" than previous governments after years of sluggish growth in the UK.

British finance minister Rachel Reeves spelled out her plans to revive the country's slow-moving economy on Wednesday, adding to recent pledges to reform investment and planning rules with a commitment to back airport expansion at Heathrow.

Rachel Reeves didn’t dare mention farmers during a speech about growth on Wednesday but they made sure there was no forgetting them - or her inheritance tax raid. Dozens of furious farmers, with their tractors in tow, descended on the lawn of Siemens Healthineers in Oxford where the Chancellor was delivering her plans for growth.

The airport’s plan to build a third runway received parliamentary approval in June 2018, but has been delayed by legal challenges and the pandemic.