Reeves pledges investment to ‘rebuild Britain’ will feature in Budget
The UK Government’s autumn Budget statement will be used to “rebuild Britain” and deliver on the change Labour offered at the election, Rachel Reeves is to pledge.
The Chancellor will make her speech at the Labour Party conference on Monday as ministers seek to move out from under the shadow of a row about donations.
After weeks of warning about a poor economic legacy left by the Conservative government, Ms Reeves is also expected to signal a path towards further public investment, which she will claim is the “solution” to the UK’s growth problem.
The Chancellor’s speech comes after Sir Keir Starmer vowed Labour would not return to an austerity agenda to deal with public spending pressures.
Ms Reeves will insist economic stability is “the crucial foundation on which all our ambitions will be built”, as she seeks to justify to Labour members the spending restrictions which are aimed at filling a £22 billion “black hole” in public finances.
Unions
Labour top brass is braced for a clash with the unions over one of these measures: the cut to winter fuel payments for most pensioners.
But Ms Reeves will join Sir Keir in maintaining “there will be no return to austerity” in an appeal to the Labour movement.
“Conservative austerity was a destructive choice for our public services – and for investment and growth too,” the Chancellor will say.
She is expected to add: “We must deal with the Tory legacy and that means tough decisions. But we won’t let that dim our ambition for Britain.
“So it will be a budget with real ambition. A budget to fix the foundations. A budget to deliver the change we promised. A budget to rebuild Britain.”
In a signal of Labour keeping its manifesto commitments, Ms Reeves will promise not to raise national insurance, income tax and VAT.
She will also say corporation tax is to remain at its “current level for the duration of this Parliament”.
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We all know this is a total lie from Chancellor Rachael Reeves. Rebuilding Britain lol. That’s code for England. How can you attract , say overseas investment to Wales, when Whitehall refuses to invest in upgrading our neglected infrastructure stating cost a factor as seen with rail electrification? And the Welsh Labour Government doesn’t have enough money to go it alone with only having £1 billion borrowing powers and that’s already been maxed out. If self-serving UK Labour focused on taxing those mega corporations rather than removing money from those struggling pensioners on the breadline would not have all the… Read more »
She wants to bring ‘public finances’ under control? She’s just found about £10 billion down the back of the sofa for public sector pay rises, with no hint of any performance clauses. Make no mistake, it’s private money this lot’ll be after, and they’ll take as many bungs for trousers suits and concert tickets as they can manage along the way.
When is austerity not austerity?
When it’s a Labour government doing it.
If public sector pay rises can be cancelled then I guess so can the triple lock.
I have no problem with public sector pay rises, but they should be dependent on large-scale performance improvements.