What you heard about the Budget depends on what you watch
In the week before the 2026 Autumn Budget (21–27 October), we read every mention of it on 60 UK podcasts and YouTube channels. Right-leaning outlets covered it eight times as often as left-leaning ones, and were almost four times as critical. Each channel told a different story.
You’ve Been Mentioned Research2 min readHow we did this
- Published
- 28 October 2026
- Period
- 21–27 October 2026
- Sources
- 60 UK podcasts and YouTube channels
- Moments analysed
- 1,481
What each channel told you.
On TalkTV, the Budget was about defence and a Chancellor who once resigned over it. On the BBC, it was the fiscal rules. The Daily Express channel was the most critical; the BBC was the least.
Critical of the government’s plans, by outlet
21–27 Oct| Outlet | Critical of the plans | Biggest topic |
|---|---|---|
| Daily Express | 72% | Tax burden 41% |
| TalkTV | 45% | Defence 30% |
| GB News | 37% | Defence 19% |
| Times Radio | 26% | Business 25% |
| Sky News | 24% | Defence 21% |
| LBC | 22% | Defence 26% |
| The Spectator | 22% | Leaks 42% |
| Novara Media | 12% | Fiscal rules 42% |
| BBC | 9% | Fiscal rules 24% |
TalkTV: defence first
30% of its Budget talk was about defence, the most of any outlet in the chart.
BBC: the least critical
9% of its Budget talk criticised the plans. Its biggest topic was the fiscal rules.
Daily Express: the most critical
72% critical, with the tax burden its biggest Budget topic.
Same Budget, different channel.
Left-leaning and mainstream outlets on the left, right-leaning on the right. Each card is a real moment from the week, with the outlet’s own numbers.
Fiscal rules 24% · 9% critical
“when the bond markets turn, it's terrifying to be in charge of the country's finances.”
Defence 30% · 45% critical
“He should name the year in his budget next week in which we should spend 3% of GDP. Otherwise, why did he resign?”
Fiscal rules 42% · 12% critical
“Do no harm for chancellors is not a bad starting motto, but do something else as well.”
Tax burden 41% · 72% critical
“They say that chancellors are either undertakers or they're bookies. This one is an ostrich.”
Where right and left split.
Left-leaning outlets talked fiscal rules, leaks and who should pay. Right-leaning outlets talked defence, tax and welfare, and covered the Budget eight times as much: 160 episodes and videos to 19.
| Theme | Left-leaning | Right-leaning |
|---|---|---|
| Defence | 4% | 22% |
| Tax burden | 4% | 16% |
| Welfare | 3% | 9% |
| Fiscal rules | 36% | 19% |
| Leaks and briefings | 23% | 12% |
| Wealth and property taxes | 5% | 1% |
| Housing and devolution | 6% | 2% |
Everyone agreed: a Budget designed to do little.
On every side, one moment in ten or fewer backed the government’s plans. Most expected the Chancellor to put the hard choices off.
“frighten nobody, really deliver nothing”
TalkTV, 26 October · Play the moment
“a bit of a manana budget”
The Guardian's Politics Weekly UK, 26 October · Play the moment
“an enormous nothing burger”
Moving Home with Charlie, 26 October · Play the moment
The unleakable Budget.
Outlets across the spectrum noticed how little had leaked before the statement. Leaks and briefings were the money shows’ biggest Budget topic (29%), and left-leaning outlets talked about them almost twice as much as right-leaning ones (23% against 12%).
Left-leaning
“So the team around John Healey have always been touting this budget as the unleakable budget.”
Mainstream
“But it's said that the Chancellor, coming from the MOD, has applied military-grade security to the planning of the budget and the work that's been done.”
Right-leaning
“And Healey, apparently, with his Ministry of Defence chops, has tightened up security on who in the Treasury is able to see the budget documents being prepared.”
How we did this
Sources. 60 UK podcasts and YouTube channels, in episodes and videos published 21–27 October 2026. 27 October is a part day: what had been published when we ran the analysis. 62% of the Budget talk was on YouTube, mostly news channels, and 38% on podcasts.
Labelling. An AI model (Claude Sonnet) recorded each moment’s topic, up to three of 16 themes, and its stance toward the government’s plans. Outlet names were removed and outlets were mixed together, so it could not tell where a moment came from.
Groups. Outlets were placed using YouGov polling on how the public sees them (2017, 2023) and how they describe themselves. Every outlet airs guests, callers and politicians from across the spectrum, so the figures measure what each outlet broadcast, not what each side of politics thinks.
Quotes. Copied word for word from the transcript and credited to the outlet that aired them, since many are guests or callers.
- Right-leaning
- GB News; TalkTV, including Morning Glory and The Jeremy Kyle Breakfast Show; the Daily Express, The Sun and The Telegraph YouTube channels; The Daily T; The Spectator's Coffee House Shots, Best of the Spectator and Reality Check; Dan Wootton Outspoken; the Reform UK and Nigel Farage YouTube channels.
- Left-leaning
- Novara Media and Novara Live; Guardian News, Politics Weekly UK and Today in Focus; The Mirror YouTube channel; Daily Politics from the New Statesman; The Observer's The News Meeting; A Different Bias.
- Mainstream
- BBC News, BBC Politics, Newscast, Matt Chorley's Urgent Questions, Westminster Hour, Any Questions? and Any Answers?, The Week in Westminster, Today in Parliament and the Six O'Clock News; Sky News; ITV News and Good Morning Britain; Channel 4 News and The Fourcast; Times Radio, Politics Unpacked, The Andrew Neil Report and How To Win An Election; The Times' The State of It; LBC; Political Currency; The Rest Is Politics and The Rest Is Politics: Leading; Rock & Roll Politics with Steve Richards; Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government; the Hansard Society's Parliament Matters; the Financial Times' Political Fix; Politico's Westminster Insider.
- Money shows
- Wake Up to Money; City AM's Business As Usual; Bloomberg Daybreak: Europe Edition; AJ Bell Money & Markets; The Rest Is Money; Unhedged; The Weekly Briefing from Capital Economics; This is Money; interactive investor's On The Money; The Property Podcast; Moving Home with Charlie; The Transact Platform Podcast; Medics Money; The Times' The Business; J.P. Morgan's At Any Rate and Global Data Pod.
Follow the Budget reaction yourself.
Search the Budget free and ask what podcasts and YouTube are saying, with every answer linked to the moment it was said. We’ll run this study again on the reaction.