Just recently, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, delivered a Labour Party budget. People have been calling for Labour’s mission and principles to be more clearly articulated. Through the choices 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 unequivocally demonstrated what we believe in.
That’s why Labour MPs applauded in the Commons, and it’s why we are ready for the battles to come. And it’s why the protests from the right began immediately.
The central division in British politics is once again on the economy. On the one side Labour, who want to change it so it helps everyday working people, and on the other, our opponents, who favor the status quo and the failed ideology of the past. We must now confront, and prevail in, the debate.
The Tories had 14 years to fix things and instead, by every standard, they got far more dire. Their ideological austerity and trickle-down economics – tax breaks for the wealthy, reducing investment (causing us with low productivity and wages), and neglecting to support young people after the pandemic – didn’t work.
Quality of life fell by the largest margin 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 affected by Covid were abandoned. The record 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 keep making the case for why our approach will yield benefits.
Under the Tories, welfare spending significantly increased. As did child poverty, because they didn’t address the underlying issues: low pay, high housing costs, deep inequalities in education, health and regions. The state is forced to paying more to deal with the symptoms instead of the cure.
It’s why we are building more social housing than for a generation, increasing wages and new rights for workers, greatly increasing investment in infrastructure and new industries, reducing waiting lists down and lowering the costs of childcare and energy as we pursue clean power.
This is also the reason we are absolutely right to use this budget to remove the two-child benefit cap.
For eight long years, 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 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.
I know from my own district – where over 5,000 children will be lifted out of poverty as a result of abolishing the cap – the actual 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 depending 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 results of deep poverty.
Just one in four pupils from the most disadvantaged families achieve five good GCSEs, compared with almost 75% among affluent families. This predisposes them for the disadvantages 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.
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 removing the two-child cap, or extending free school meals.
That’s why we acted urgently in the budget, despite the challenging economic context. Every day with this cap in place sees more than 100 extra children pushed into poverty. The effects 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 conservative ideology. Now it is gone.
We, as Labour, can also be explicit that these measures are being paid for in a fair way – from a new gaming tax, closing tax loopholes and a new “mansion tax”.
Fairness and direction – that’s how we will succeed in the contest of ideas. This budget is a clear statement that we won the election as Labour, and will govern 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 really wrong with the country and how we are fixing it. We’ve definitely done that this week.
So let’s maintain it and win this fight about how we will renew Britain and address the entrenched inequalities holding us back.
A tech enthusiast and gaming aficionado with over a decade of experience in digital media and content creation.
