Through Terminating a Cruel Conservative Social Experiment, This Financial Plan Definitively Sets Out How the Labour Party Will Fight the Struggle to Revitalize Britain

Just recently, the finance minister, Rachel Reeves, delivered a Labour economic plan. The public have been asking for Labour’s purpose and principles to be more clearly expressed. By way of the choices made – a transition to a fairer tax system, targeting wealth to fund tackling child poverty, good public services and the living expenses – we have unequivocally set out what we believe in.

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 conservative side began right away.

The Central Political Divide in British Politics

The primary division in British politics is once again on the economy. On the one hand Labour, who aim to change it so it helps everyday working people, and on the opposite side, our opponents, who support the status quo and the unsuccessful ideology of the past. We must now take on, and prevail in, the argument.

The Tories had 14 years to fix things and in reality, by any measure, they got far more dire. Their ideological austerity and trickle-down economics – tax cuts for the wealthy, reducing investment (causing us with low productivity and wages), and neglecting to support young people post-Covid – proved ineffective.

Record of Failure Under the Former Government

Quality of life fell by the biggest amount since records began, child poverty reached record levels, NHS waiting lists in England were the highest they’ve ever been, wages remained flat, a housing crisis became entrenched, young people affected by Covid were abandoned. The history of failure goes on.

A single budget alone can’t fix everything, so Labour has a comprehensive plan for rebuilding and for rewiring the country. And we have to go out and continue making the argument for why our strategy will reap dividends.

Welfare Spending and Child Poverty

Under the Tories, welfare spending significantly increased. As did child poverty, because they didn’t address the underlying issues: low pay, high housing costs, significant inequalities in education, health and regions. The state is forced to paying more to deal with the symptoms instead of the solution.

That’s why we are building more affordable homes than for a generation, increasing wages and new rights for workers, massively boosting investment in infrastructure and new industries, reducing waiting lists down and lowering the costs of childcare and energy as we pursue clean power.

Ending the Two-Child Benefit Cap

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 unjust 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 has only served to push 300,000 more children into poverty – which, in the end, costs us more, as well as being heartless and unethical.

Tangible Effects in Local Areas

From experience from my own district – 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 hungry and cold, living in cramped, damp homes, parents this Christmas relying on food banks for a modest meal or small gift for their kids.

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

Lasting Effects of Youth Hardship

Just a quarter of pupils from the most disadvantaged families achieve five good GCSEs, compared with nearly three in four among wealthier families. This predisposes them for the disadvantages they face throughout their lives: unrealized potential, financial struggles and ill health. Children who grew up in poverty are more likely to be unemployed or poor as adults.

Addressing child poverty isn’t just a ethical duty, it is a future-oriented strategy. Poverty costs the economy far, far more than the three billion pound cost of lifting the two-child cap, or extending free school meals.

That’s why 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 effects of lifting it will not occur overnight either, so acting early 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 clear that these measures are being paid for in a fair way – from a new gaming tax, eliminating tax loopholes and a new “mansion tax”.

Conclusion

Fairness and purpose – that’s how we will win the battle of ideas. This budget is a clear statement that we gained the election as Labour, and will govern as Labour. As I repeatedly said during my campaign to become deputy leader, we must reclaim the political platform and define the narrative more strongly about what’s really wrong with the country and how we are repairing it. We’ve definitely done that this week.

So let’s maintain it and win this struggle about how we will renew Britain and address the deep inequalities holding us back.