‘Painful’ Budget needed for ‘long-term good’ – Starmer
Sir Keir Starmer warned that the UK Government’s forthcoming Budget will be “painful” as he asked the country to “accept short-term pain for long-term good”.
In a speech in the Downing Street rose garden, the Prime Minister claimed his Government has done more in seven weeks than the Conservative government did in seven years.
But he warned “things are worse than we ever imagined” because of a £22 billion “black hole” in the public finances, claiming to have found out last week that the Tories had borrowed almost £5 billion more than the Office for Budget Responsibility expected.
Sir Keir also claimed his Government has inherited a “societal black hole” made worse by recent rioting, and said his decisions to release some prisoners early and means-test the pensioners’ winter fuel allowance are “tough actions” needed to fix the country’s foundations.
Cracking down
He said: “There is a Budget coming in October, and it’s going to be painful. We have no other choice, given the situation that we’re in.
“Those with the broadest shoulders should bear the heavier burden, and that’s why we’re cracking down on non-doms.
“Those who made the mess should have to do their bit to clean it up – that’s why we’re strengthening the powers of the water regulator and backing tough fines on the water companies that let sewage flood our rivers, lakes and seas.
“But, just as when I responded to the riots, I’ll have to turn to the country and make big asks of you as well, to accept short-term pain for long-term good, the difficult trade-off for the genuine solution.
“And I know that, after all that you have been through, that is a really big ask and really difficult to hear. That is not the position we should be in. It’s not the position I want to be in, but we have to end the politics of the easy answer – that solves nothing.”
Tax rises
The Prime Minister said he was “not going to pre-empt the Budget” when pressed on what tax rises and spending decisions the Government is considering to announce on October 30, although he reiterated his pledge on the “triple lock for working people”.
“We were being honest about the situation before the election, we set out very clearly what we would be doing with tax rises,” he said.
“I made it clear on numerous occasions that national insurance, VAT and income tax would not go up, the triple lock for working people, and that remains the position.
“I also set out that our plans were fully funded and fully costed. What I did not expect was a £22 billion black hole.”
Sir Keir denied his remarks were “performative”, adding: “I didn’t want to have to deal with the winter fuel allowance for pensioners… We have to fix the NHS, we have to fix our homes, our schools, and pensioners rely on them in the same way as everybody else does, so I’m not going to pre-empt the Budget, but I am absolutely not going to accept that the inheritance that we have is anything other than dire – a £22 billion black hole.”
He used his speech to claim the Government had to undertake daily checks on the number of prison places to “make sure we could arrest, charge and prosecute people quickly” during the recent riots.
“That’s disgraceful,” he said. “No prime minister should ever be in that position when trying to deal with disorder. That’s what we inherited, that’s what we will fix.”
Growth
Pressed further on his Government’s tax and spend plans, Sir Keir told reporters: “We have to get away from this idea that the only levers that can be pulled are more taxes or more spending. Our number one mission is to grow the economy to make sure we are creating the money in the first place – that remains the number one mission, nothing knocks that mission.
“And that’s why it’s really important we have a transport system that works, that’s why it’s really important we have an NHS capable of getting through the backlog, that’s why it’s important we have the national wealth fund, Great British Energy, that we unlock planning so that we can get on.
“All of those decisions are decisions we’ve taken in the first seven weeks to make sure we get the economy where we need it, but we’re going to have to take tough decisions.”
Conservative leadership candidate Kemi Badenoch, who serves as shadow housing secretary, said: “Keir Starmer is taking the British public for fools, but his dishonest analysis won’t wash. He campaigned on promises he couldn’t deliver and now he is being found out.”
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Beats “stop the boats” or “place your bets” on the podium.
It was an interesting do. Just nuts that they had to run checks on prison spaces.
Budget will be interesting and I hope the winter fuel allowance is sorted.
Now to wait for the usual suspects to get upset ……. oh, they already are. Cronyism seems to be the drive at the moment.
The usual suspects being us at the bottom as always.
Will this forthcoming “painful” budget be painful for everyone, including politician or will it only hit a certain group of people, i.e.: the ordinary man in the street and pensioners? Will the rich suffer or will they cash in big time on a “painful” budget?
You are homing in on the dark truth Frank. Apologists will say that all this “pain” is necessary and all down to the wicked Tories. Socialists need to wake up to the fact that Starmer and Co are the Red wing of Tories and have the capacity to be very wicked. Their chums in the various elite clusters won’t be losing any sleep shielded by trust funds and other devices about which successive governments just won’t do anything
Starmer and Co knew full well what they were inheriting, the £20bn “black hole” isn’t a black hole at all, the OBR had been warning about it for a long time. This “black hole” narrative has been spun to convince people with short memories that the £20bn of uncosted promises in the Labour election manifesto wasn’t a problem and this is all the fault of the tories and nothing at all to do with Labour promising free sweets and a unicorn to anyone willing to vote for them. This £20bn “black hole” has been there for all to see in… Read more »
Once again it will be the poorest who will bear most of the burden.
Spot on..
He’s a piece of work is Two-Tier. He moans about the ‘surprise’ financial black hole that we all know wasn’t really a surprise, but magically finds a pile of money for huge public sector pay rises, and then has the chutzpah to warn of an impending ‘painful’ budget to pay for it all. In the words of a far more wise and capable Prime Minister, “I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.”
Saw “two tier”. Stopped reading.
Yep when someone is spreading far-right tropes same here.
Far-right meaning anyone with a different opinion to yours eh?
Yup! That’s the way to hear all sides. Just ignore what you don’t want. No wonder our country is always in a mess.
Just as well: there were some pretty big words later on.
Public sector workers deserve every penny they will be getting. If Starmer & Co were prepared to do what needs to be done and tax the obscenely rich properly there would be no financial black hole, and plenty left over to fix all that needs to be fixed in the economy, and to also fund the growth that they say is needed. Growth won’t happen without investment, and at present Starmer & Co are as guilty of economic illiteracy as were the Tories when they launched the ideological austerity that Labour under Starmer are now doubling down on. It really… Read more »
Just getting the “obscenely rich” to pay taxes in accordance with the structures that govern the rest of us would be a big step forward. Those loopholes that I go on about all the time seem to be invisible to the goons in government, or are they using them too ? So far Labour are continuing with the corrupt tax regime that has prevailed for decades with new bits added on by each successive regime.
The public sector is scandalously inefficient, over-staffed, wasteful, and an organisational basket case. That’s why public sector net debt now exceeds 100% of the UK’s GDP, at over £3 trillion, and growing by the second. If you don’t see that as a problem then I hope to God no one puts you in charge of a business. When Starmer dished out the pay rises there was not one word about improving the situation: he just wants to spray taxpayers’s money at it. Rest assured that the ‘broad shoulders’ carrying this burden won’t belong to him or any of his socialist… Read more »
According to
https://tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/private-debt-to-gdp#:~:text=Private%20Debt%20to%20GDP%20in,source%3A%20OECD
Private sector debt in 2023 was 160% of GDP.
Therefore private sector is “scandalously inefficient, over-staffed, wasteful, and an organisational basket case”?!
Neither figure takes account of the assets of either public or private sectors.
Sweden has a public sector debt to GDP ratio of 123%
There’s one big difference between public and private sector debt though, isn‘t there? Sweden wasn’t so stupid as to lock their country down, oh, and…
https://nation.cymru/news/council-spends-nearly-1m-on-consultants-for-cost-cutting-project/
Well that’s two differences not one.
And both are about as relevant to this ‘discussion’ as who’s top of the Singles Download Chart
With the majority that KS has, he should say in his budget that all subsidised restaurants and bars and other things that the general public do not know about at Westminster, will be closed to save money. Also he should say that all heating, food etc. benefits MP’s and Lords receive be scrapped to save money.
Absolutely.
Austerity is a political choice. Disappointing but unsurprising that Starmer has chosen this path. Can we all now please stop the pretence that Labour are progressive. The solution to our problem is to adopt a similar tax and investment model to our friends over in mainland Europe. They are more successful at taxing the wealthiest. We are stuck in a dogmatic neoliberal hellhole with dogwhistled right wing boors contaminating public discourse with their utter swill. We need to tax a little higher, progressively and invest in our services and economy. That’s what’s missing in Britain. That’s what’s throttling the Welsh… Read more »
I find it a bit worrying that he can say. “What I did not expect was a £22 billion black hole.” Most of us weren’t surprised after the conservative’s profligate reign.
What I don’t understand is why the Prime Minister did not know that there was a “black hole” amounting to £22bn when he was the Leader of the Shadow Labour Party! Surely this could not have come as a surprise to him. Doesn’t the shadow party have access to the country’s state of affairs and accounts?
They do have access, they’d have also been briefed when it looked likely they’d win: they knew all along; they’re lying.
The OBR in June had said that month showed a £3.5bn increase in spending from public sector rises already agreed, so SKS is blatantly misleading in what he knew.
Freeze a few Tory donor’s, Dido Harding and the PPE fraudsters bank accounts and empty them…
If he had the cojones to round up the ill gotten gains of the Covid crisis, shut down the biggest juiciest loopholes for tax “mitigation” and chase in late tax payments he’d be making a lasting mark. But it would affect those that he sucks up to so it ain’t gonna happen !
Don’t know many oap’s or young children with “broad shoulders” maybe I should get out more.
Lots of rhetorical platitudes about ‘growing the economy’ but no real export directed strategy from the guy. Knocking up a load of wind turbines is not the answer ..that will simply add more cost to an already very high cost rentier economy.
Just who is this “painful budget” going to be painful for?
Anyone who wants to take a lump sum from their pensions and pension tax relief will be attacked while his gold plated pension from CPS days is quite safe.
Definitely not for politicians, lords and ladies, the royal family, billionaires and all of the very well heeled for sure. They will probably be cashing in on the dire situation somehow or other.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies pointed the budget black hole before the election. It is dishonest of Labour to admit “oh yeah we need to cut loads of stuff” only once they won the election.
Be it Labour or Conservative the ordinary working person will suffer…
We had it when Cameron came into power & austerity & now Labour are playing the same blame game to hit us in the pocket…..
Wait until the WASPI women get very little, junior govt minister already priming that backtrack on what ombudsman recommends.
I don’t normally find Starmer a noticeably engaging, let alone an inspiring, speaker, but I listened to the whole of his speech this morning as it was delivered, and I thought that it was his best yet – at least of his speeches that I’ve heard. It was low-key, and yet direct, frank and to the point. Perhaps above all it was an entire and refreshing change from the grandiose but normatively vacuous blathering of Johnson, the manic starey-eyed monotones of Truss and the pleading but demonstrably hollow rhetoric of Sunak. At least Starmer spoke to his audience today as… Read more »
Whilst I agree that this government has inherited a sour legacy I don’t think it’s honest of KS to suggest that it comes as a surprise. I also think that one can be realistic and explain that if you have been overspending then you have to compensate by making savings. What I find difficult is calling yourself a Labour Party while still supporting the wealthy at the expense of the rest. As for continuing to shout about how bad everything is and not balance it with any good news I fear could result in talking us into a downward spiral.… Read more »
I pretty much agree with the sentiments which you express in the latter part of your post, beginning at ‘Why does the Welsh Government not trumpet … ‘ I think you’re quite right there, but I fear that they won’t because Labour is a unionist party, and its Welsh faction will shrink from rocking the UK Labour boat. And I also agree with you ‘that if you have been overspending then you have to compensate by making savings’. That appears to be exactly what Labour is doing. But as for ‘supporting the wealthy at the expense of the rest’, I think… Read more »
I suppose the big difference is how we each define ‘Wealthy’.
The ‘Mail’ is quite happy to do that on our behalf!
I don’t remember KS mentioning austerity during the run up to the election? I wonder why? Oh yes, probably because it wouldn’t have gone down very well with the younger voters.
I doubt that yet more austerity would go down with any voters, whether young or old.
The Red Tory is showing his true colours
Starmer could do what the government did at the end of WW11 ie print money to invest in people, skills and our infrastructure. Invest to grow. QE for the people. We dont need or want more austerity.
This could well put Plaid in with a chance…and complete the double…
The same lectern with an inane three word slogan.
Absolute crap…he never mentioned tax rises and nor did Rachel Reeves!
They had access to the government spending through the Office Of Budget Responsibility the same has everyone.
Lies, lies and more lies, while train drivers get 14% pay rise and pensioners freeze over the winter!
And the people of Wales voted Liebour! You deserve everything you get!!!
When do we hear any difference? I remember when Gordon Brown said that we had had the good times and it was now time to tighten our belts. We looked at each other because somehow we had completely missed the good times. Same old, same old.
I remember reading an economist many years ago who said the biggest fraud of all was duping the ordinary man into agreeing to income tax because the rich do not earn income only us. So they have been winning ever since.