By Halting a Cruel Tory Social Experiment, This Budget Clearly Sets Out How the Labour Party Will Fight the Struggle to Revitalize Britain

Yesterday, the finance minister, Rachel Reeves, presented a Labour Party budget. The public have been calling for Labour’s purpose and values to be more clearly expressed. Through the decisions made – a shift to a fairer tax system, focusing on wealth to fund tackling child poverty, good public services and the living expenses – we have clearly demonstrated what we stand for.

This is why Labour MPs cheered in the Commons, and it’s why we are up for the battles to come. And it’s why the protests from the right began right away.

The Main Political Divide in British Government

The primary division in British politics is yet again on the economy. On the one side Labour, who aim to change it so it benefits ordinary working people, and on the other, our political opponents, who favor the current system and the unsuccessful doctrine of the past. We must now confront, and win, the debate.

The Tories were given 14 years to fix things and instead, by any measure, they got much worse. Their doctrinaire austerity and supply-side economics – tax cuts for the wealthy, cutting off investment (leaving us with poor productivity and wages), and neglecting to support young people after the pandemic – didn’t work.

Legacy of Failure Under the Previous Administration

Living standards fell by the biggest amount since records began, child poverty hit record levels, NHS waiting lists in England were the highest they’ve ever been, wages were stagnant, a housing crisis became entrenched, young people scarred by Covid were left on the scrapheap. The history of failure goes on.

One budget alone can’t fix everything, so Labour has a long-term plan for renewal and for rewiring the country. And we have to go out and continue making the case for why our approach will yield benefits.

Welfare Spending and Child Poverty

During the Tories, welfare spending significantly increased. As did child poverty, because they failed to tackle the root causes: low pay, high housing costs, significant inequalities in education, health and regions. The state is forced to paying more to manage the effects instead of the cure.

It’s why we are constructing more social housing than for a generation, raising wages and enhanced protections for workers, massively boosting investment in infrastructure and new industries, reducing waiting lists down and lowering the costs of childcare and energy as we drive for clean power.

Ending the Two-Child Limit

This is also the reason we are completely justified to use this budget to lift the two-child benefit cap.

For eight long years, since it was introduced, low-income families with children have suffered from a cruel social experiment that was branded as fair for working people when it was the opposite. Most of the families impacted by it have a parent in work.

It’s done nothing but push 300,000 more children into poverty – which, ultimately, costs us more, as well as being heartless and unethical.

Real Impact in Local Areas

I know from my own constituency – where over 5,000 children will be raised out of poverty as a result of ending the cap – the real impact it’s had. Children wearing £1 wellies as school shoes, children going to bed without food and cold, living in overcrowded, damp homes, parents during the holidays relying on food banks for a simple meal or small gift for their kids.

I also see the impact on schools, teachers, social workers, doctors and charities who are already stretched but have to redirect time and resources to supporting children who are living with the results of deep poverty.

Lasting Consequences of Child Poverty

Just a quarter of pupils from the most disadvantaged families achieve five good GCSEs, compared with almost 75% among affluent families. This sets them up for the challenges they face throughout their lives: missed potential, financial struggles and poor health. Children who were raised in poverty are more likely to be unemployed or poor as adults.

Confronting child poverty isn’t just a ethical duty, it is a long-term investment. Poverty costs the economy significantly more than the three billion pound cost of removing the two-child cap, or extending free school meals.

This is the reason we acted urgently in the budget, despite the very difficult economic context. Every day with this cap in place sees over a hundred extra children pushed into poverty. The benefits of lifting it will not occur overnight either, so taking early action in the parliament was vital.

The cap was a symbol to 14 years of unsuccessful rightwing ideology. Now it is gone.

Fair Funding for Measures

We, as Labour, can also be explicit that these initiatives are being funded in a fair way – from a new gaming tax, eliminating tax loopholes and a new “mansion tax”.

Final Thoughts

Equity and direction – that’s how we will win the battle of ideas. This budget is a definitive statement that we won the election as Labour, and will lead as Labour. As I repeatedly said during my campaign to become deputy leader, we must reclaim the political platform and set the agenda more forcefully about what’s truly flawed with the country and how we are fixing it. We’ve definitely done that this week.

So let’s keep hold of it and win this fight about how we will rebuild Britain and address the entrenched inequalities impeding progress.