I have to make tough decisions on tax in my Budget but it will be worth it because I have your backs
In three days’ time I am determined to kickstart Britain’s economy in the first Budget of this new Labour Government.
It will be a Budget to fix the foundations of our economy and deliver on the promise of change that we made to Sun on Sunday readers three months ago.
The Tories left our public finances in a state and left you, your family and our country worse off.
I am determined to fix this.
I have had to make tough decisions in this Budget. Not everything is going to be easy.
But let me be clear – I am doing this for hardworking families up and down the country who have been crying out for change.
These are the sick stuck on NHS waiting lists desperate for treatment, the children being taught in crumbling classrooms, and the workers who graft every day but still cannot afford to own their own home.
To these people I say: I have got your back. This is your Budget. I will deliver for you.
It is a Budget for the strivers.
Since I was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, I have been honest about the scale of the challenges we face because of the inheritance we were left by the previous government.
The Conservatives crashed the economy, sent mortgages through the roof, and then called an early election to avoid having to deliver this Budget.
They wasted tens of billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on gimmicks and empty promises.
Their failed Rwanda scheme wasted a staggering £700 million, they propped up private rail companies and handed out dodgy COVID contracts to their friends and donors – leaving a £22 billion black hole in the nation’s finances and public services on their knees.
Have they learnt from those mistakes?
No.
All they offer is more of the same: more decline, more austerity and working people paying the price through cuts to maternity pay and the minimum wage. All whilst handing tax breaks to oil companies.
I won’t let the mistakes of the past hold back Britain’s potential. It’s time to kickstart the engine of growth and rebuild our country.
So, the question for the Budget is not whether we must act, it is how we act and what choices we make to deliver on the priorities of the British people: fixing the NHS, rebuilding Britain and ensuring working people don’t face higher taxes in their payslips.
Delivering on those priorities has to start by bringing stability back to our public finances.
I started my career as an economist at the Bank of England. I know that the foundations of growth come from the investment that is unlocked by economic stability.
And when governments lose control of the public finances – as we saw under Liz Truss – it is families that are forced to pick up the bill.
So, at the Budget on Wednesday I will take an iron grip on the country’s finances.
I will promise not to borrow to pay for day to day spending and I will get debt falling as a share of our economy.
That means having to take tough decisions on spending and welfare to make sure every penny of taxpayers’ money is spent wisely.
I will crack down on fraud, tax avoidance and waste – including a clampdown on Whitehall departments spending money on external consultants.
Politics is about fairness. That’s why I will make sure that those who make their home in Britain, pay their taxes here too by abolishing the non-dom status.
And I will take the tough – but fair – decisions on tax to finally bring an end to austerity and fix our public services, including cutting NHS waiting lists.
Whereas the Tories always asked working people to pick up the bill, I will ensure you won’t face higher taxes in your payslip by not increasing National Insurance, the basic, higher, or additional rates of Income Tax or VAT.
This budget will ensure Britain’s working people are better off.
Over the past few days I have been in Washington talking to global finance leaders. I have never been more optimistic about our potential than I am today.
I know that there are massive opportunities in the new industries of the future from technology and life sciences to manufacturing and green energy.
By grabbing these opportunities with both hands, Britain can lead the world and make our country better off.
But we can’t stand aside. These opportunities can only be seized with investment.
Investment to rebuild our schools so children have the chance to thrive. Investment in our infrastructure so the trains run on time and potholes are filled.
And investment in the economy so businesses can create wealth, prosperity and opportunity for all.
We know from the past 14 years that the Conservatives oppose that investment. They are content with more cuts, more austerity and more decline.
Those are not choices I am willing to take. It’s time we took a different path.
My first Budget on Wednesday will turn the page on more than a decade of decline, making Britain better off.
That’s the change this new Labour government promised and it’s what we will deliver.
Rachel Reeves is the first woman to ever deliver a UK Budget - so meet the Beyonce superfan and chess whizz making history, By KATE FERGUSON
THERE have been Chancellors for nearly 1,000 years - but Rachel Reeves will make history this week by becoming the first woman to deliver Britain’s Budget.
She will join Sir Winston Churchill, William Gladstone and Thomas Cromwell in the pantheon of political giants who have held the nation’s finances in their hands.
It was not that long ago when Labour openly laughed at the idea of having a female Chancellor.
The bushy eyebrowed ex Chancellor Dennis Healey told a newspaper in 1997: “Being Chancellor is not a woman’s job.
“There’s a difference between the sexes, and people who don’t know that don’t know what people are like with their clothes off. So there.”
But if running the economy was man’s work, Mr Healey made a right pig’s ear of it.
He was Chancellor when Britain went bust in 1976 and had to go cap in hand to the IMF for a giant bailout.
It was a moment of national humiliation that shredded Labour’s economic credibility for decades.
Rachel, 45, grew up in Lewisham in south London and attended her local comprehensive school. Her mum and dad were both teachers.
A chess whizz kid, she sailed through school and studied PPE at Oxford University before working at the Bank of England.
Famously branded “boring snoring” by BBC Newsnight editor Ian Katz, Rachel has worked hard to change her image.
She swapped bodycon dresses for sharp work suits, got a bob and dubbed herself the Iron Chancellor in a deliberate nod to Margaret Thatcher.
Image matters in politics.
Earlier this month, Rachel set tongues wagging when she dyed her chestnut hair red.
Westminster insiders thought she was trying to send a message.
Was she softening her image after being accused of being too gloomy about the nation’s finances? Or doubling down as Britain’s ‘red’ Labour Chancellor?
The Sun on Sunday can reveal the truth is a little duller – but one many women can relate to.
She had only wanted a slight tweak to her colour, and when the hairdresser washed off the dye to reveal the newly ginger locks Rachel immediately did not like it.
“It was a mistake”, one pal said.
A huge Beyonce fan, Rachel has been in training for her big Budget day by plugging in her airpods and hitting the streets on early morning runs.
Over the years Britain has had some real hellraising Chancellors.
Thomas Cromwell would stop at nothing to find money for his master King Henry VIII.
Those who opposed his decision to dissolve the monasteries and hand the plunder to the King would find themselves at the Tower of London or worse – the scaffold.
The aristocrat Francis Dashwood – a notorious libertine and heavy drinker – became Chancellor in 1780.
But he was ousted within a year after putting taxes up on cider sparking fury among Britain’s booze loving folk.
A lesson perhaps for Rachel as she decides whether to raise alcohol duty or not.
Coincidentally, Budget Day is the only day of the year when Parliament’s strict no-booze rules are ripped up and the Chancellor is allowed to have a tipple.
Ken Clarke was the last Chancellor to enjoy this rule – sipping on a whisky at the Despatch Box.
Benjamin Disraeli opted for a brandy and water, Gladstone had a sherry with a beaten egg in it, while Geoffrey Howe had a Gin & Tonic.
Rachel will go for plain old water on Wednesday.
But while her choice of drink may be dull there will be nothing boring snoring about her Budget.
She will drop a tax bomb on Britain, tear up fiscal rules to go on a borrowing binge to bankroll big building projects.
It is a seismic shift in politics and a huge gamble from Britain’s first Labour Chancellor in a generation.
Gulp.