Reeves eyes £5bn in seized bitcoin to balance the books

Rachel Reeves is eyeing up a £5bn pre-Budget windfall as the government considers selling off seized cryptocurrency to plug a hole in the public finances.

- ARCHIE MITCHELL

The Home Office is reportedly working with police forces to offload at least £5bn worth of bitcoin and other currencies taken from criminals. It is planning to develop a storage system for the currencies to handle their sale, it has emerged, as concerns about Labour’s spending plans mount ahead of the autumn Budget.

Home Office plans for a “crypto storage and realisation framework” would allow law enforcement to securely store frozen digital currencies and sell them, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

Ms Reeves has been left with a gap of at least £5bn to fill when she sets out the government’s spending plans this autumn, with the government’s chaotic U-turn on planned benefit cuts raising the likelihood of tax hikes.