🔗 Share this article Through Halting a Cruel Tory Welfare Policy, This Budget Clearly Outlines How Labour Will Fight the Battle to Renew Britain Yesterday, the finance minister, Rachel Reeves, delivered a Labour budget. People have been asking for Labour’s mission and principles to be more distinctly expressed. Through the choices made – a transition to a more equitable tax system, targeting wealth to fund tackling child poverty, good public services and the living expenses – we have clearly demonstrated what we believe in. This is why Labour MPs applauded in the Commons, and it’s why we are ready for the fights to come. And it’s why the cries from the right began immediately. The Central Political Divide in UK Politics The primary division in British politics is once again on the economy. On the one hand Labour, who want to change it so it benefits everyday working people, and on the opposite side, our political opponents, who favor the status quo and the failed doctrine of the past. We must now confront, and prevail in, the debate. The Tories were given 14 years to resolve things and instead, by any measure, they got much worse. Their doctrinaire austerity and supply-side economics – tax breaks for the wealthy, cutting off investment (leaving us with poor productivity and wages), and neglecting to support young people post-Covid – proved ineffective. Record of Decline Under the Previous Government Living standards 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 were stagnant, a housing crisis took hold, young people scarred by Covid were abandoned. The history of failure continues. A single budget alone can’t fix everything, so Labour has a comprehensive plan for renewal and for rewiring the country. And we have to go out and keep making the argument for why our strategy will yield benefits. Welfare Spending and Youth Deprivation Under the Tories, welfare spending rose substantially. As did child poverty, because they failed to tackle the underlying issues: low pay, high housing costs, significant inequalities in education, health and regions. The state is forced to paying more to manage the symptoms instead of the solution. That’s why we are building more affordable homes than for a generation, raising wages and enhanced protections for workers, greatly increasing investment in infrastructure and new industries, getting waiting lists down and lowering the costs of childcare and energy as we pursue clean power. Ending the Two-Child Limit It’s also why we are completely justified to use this budget to lift the two-child benefit cap. For almost a decade, since it was enacted, poorer families with children have suffered from a cruel social experiment that was marketed as fair for working people when it was anything but. Most of the families affected by it have a parent in work. It’s done nothing but push 300,000 more children into poverty – which, in the end, costs us more, as well as being heartless and unethical. Real Impact in Communities From experience from my own district – where over 5,000 children will be lifted out of poverty as a result of ending the cap – the real impact it’s had. Children wearing low-cost wellies as school shoes, children going to bed hungry and cold, living in overcrowded, damp homes, parents this Christmas 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 overburdened but have to divert time and resources to supporting children who are living with the consequences of severe deprivation. Long-Term Consequences of Youth Hardship Just a quarter of pupils from the poorest 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 ill health. Children who were raised in poverty are more likely to be jobless or poor as adults. Addressing child poverty isn’t just a ethical duty, it is a future-oriented strategy. Poverty costs the economy significantly more than the £3bn cost of lifting the two-child cap, or expanding free school meals. This is the reason we acted promptly in the budget, despite the challenging economic context. Every day with this cap in place sees more than 100 additional children pushed into poverty. The benefits of lifting it will not occur overnight either, so taking early action in the parliament was crucial. The cap was a totem to 14 years of failed conservative ideology. Now it is abolished. Fair Funding for Measures We, as Labour, can also be clear that these measures are being funded in a just way – from a new gaming tax, closing tax loopholes and a new “mansion tax”. Final Thoughts Fairness and direction – that’s how we will succeed in the contest of ideas. This budget is a definitive statement that we gained the election as Labour, and will lead as Labour. As I consistently said during my campaign to become deputy leader, we must seize back 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 certainly done that this week. So let’s keep hold of it and prevail in this fight about how we will renew Britain and address the entrenched inequalities impeding progress.