Last week a Budget was delivered by a Labour Chancellor for the first time in fourteen years. The Chancellor had a difficult task with the inheritance she was handed by her predecessor and I don’t envy her having to make some of the decisions she did.
Just as a brief reminder, the Conservatives crashed the economy, sending mortgages through the roof, and then called an early election to avoid having to deliver this Budget. They wasted billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on their failed asylum system, propping up private rail companies and dodgy COVID contracts – leaving a £22 billion black hole in the nation’s finances and public services on their knees.
The choice at the Budget was clear: five more years of the same failed Conservative policies and more austerity that leaves working people having to pick up the bill. Or change with a Labour Government that fixes the foundations to invest in Britain’s future so we can fix the NHS and rebuild our country, while ensuring working people don’t face higher taxes in their payslips.
The Budget asks the wealthiest and businesses to pay their fair share and takes tough decisions on spending and welfare by cracking down on fraud, tax avoidance and waste, and making sure every penny of taxpayer money is spent wisely. The Labour Government will make sure that those who make their home in Britain, pay their taxes here too by abolishing the non-dom status.
The tough choices we have made mean we can raise the minimum wage and give millions of workers and apprentices more money in their pockets. It means we can protect the triple lock, giving pensioners a boost of around £1,700 during this Parliament. That we can allocate to our farmers the largest pot of funding directed at sustainable food production and nature recovery in history. It enables us to deliver our manifesto commitments to 40,000 extra elective NHS appointments a week and new scanners and diagnostic equipment as part of a £25 billion increase in NHS funding. We can’t get growth without investment, so the Budget also boosts public investment in infrastructure over the next five years whilst keeping debt on a downward path.
This Budget delivers the change that so many people voted for.
It is the start of a new chapter towards making Britain better off: more pounds in people’s pockets. An NHS that is there for you when you need it. And businesses creating wealth and opportunity for all. It is a Budget that invests in Britain’s future so, alongside business, we can build the homes, the infrastructure, the roads and the railways our country needs.
Josh MacAlister MP 