Tag: Rachel Reeves

The speech made by Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the House of Commons on 23 March 2022.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Today was the day that the Chancellor could have put a windfall tax on oil and gas producers to provide real help for families, but he did not. Today was the day he could have set out a proper plan to support businesses and create good jobs, but he did not. Today was the day that he could properly have scrapped his national insurance hike, but he did not. Labour said it was the wrong tax at the wrong time, and the wrong choice; and today the Chancellor has finally admitted that he got that one wrong. Inflation is at its highest level for 30 years, and rising. Energy prices are at record highs, and people are worried sick. For all his words, it is clear that the Chancellor does not understand the scale of the challenge. He talks about providing security for working families, but his choices are making the cost of living crisis worse, not better.

The situation following Putin’s criminal assault on Ukraine remains gravely serious. Just one month after the invasion, so much has changed, and there will be repercussions for years to come. The Chancellor has today failed to explain why he chose to sign off on a reduction in our country’s armed forces last October. Will he confirm whether the Government’s target Army size is still being reduced by 10,000 troops? I say this to the Chancellor: Labour will support whatever is needed on defence and security, in order to keep our country safe.

The tremors following Putin’s aggression will impact Britain, including economically, but the cost of living crisis predates Putin’s attack on Ukraine. In October, inflation was already forecast to be double the Bank of England’s target, yet the Prime Minister said that fears of inflation were unfounded. Today we learn that inflation has reached 6.2%, and it is expected to go higher in the coming months. People are rightly looking to their Government to help them weather this storm. Labour will support sensible measures to ease the pressure, but what the Chancellor has announced today says everything we need to know about his priorities.

The cost of living crisis is hitting people particularly hard because incomes have been squeezed during the past 12 years of Conservative Governments. Ordinary families, disabled people, and pensioners are facing difficult choices. Mums are skipping meals so that their children do not. Families are struggling to buy new school shoes and uniforms for their children. Older people are hesitating to put the heating on, because they are worried about the cost.

At the weekend, the Chancellor was asked about fuel poverty, and he did not even know the numbers. That is shameful, because when Martin Lewis predicts that 10 million people could be pushed into fuel poverty, the Chancellor should sit up and listen. We know that pensions and social security will not keep up with inflation, and pensioners and those on social security will be getting a real-terms cut to their income. What analysis has the Chancellor done on the impact of benefits being uprated by less than inflation? How many more children and pensioners will drift into poverty because of the choices of this Government?

Who does the Chancellor’s prioritise?

He continues to defend the record profits of the oil and gas producers who themselves admit that they now have “more money than they know what to do with.”

BP describes this crisis as a ‘cash machine’ for them, but it is British people who are paying out.

And it is deeply regrettable that the SNP have joined the Tories in wanting to shield oil and gas producers from Labour’s progressive measures.

When I set out Labour’s plans for a windfall tax in January, we estimated that it would have raised £1.2 billion.

Now, because of the continued rise in global oil and gas prices, it would today raise over £3 billion.

That’s money that could be used to help families, pensioners and businesses.

With a cut to VAT – a real Brexit dividend that would help working families and pensioners across our country.

And a targeted Warm Homes Discount that would see families and pensioners on the lowest and modest incomes being supported by £600.

Today the Chancellor comes along after 12 years of failure on energy efficiency and announces a VAT cut on building materials.

This is wholly inadequate.

A proper energy efficiency scheme like the one we have set out could cut bills by £400 to people from next year.

And the silence from the Chancellor on our energy intensive manufacturing industries is appalling.

At this time of national crisis, people and businesses need a government that is on their side.

Now the Chancellor spoke of difficult choices. And I agree – there are always choices to be made.

Like who to tax and who to shield.

Despite the Chancellor’s reluctant measures, the facts are that he is taking money out of people’s purses and wallets with an increase in national insurance contributions.

The changes he is making today, begs the question why did he embark on these changes in the first place?

Despite the warnings from the Labour Party and many, many others.

Now it’s one thing for the Prime Minister and Chancellor to disagree with each other, but the centre piece of the statement that the Chancellor has delivered today is based on a disagreement with himself.

And for all his tax rising on the millions in the middle, where is the increased tax contribution from the very wealthiest in society?

A landlord with a large number of properties won’t be paying a penny more in taxes.

But their tenants will.

Someone with significant income from buying and selling stocks and shares won’t be paying any more in tax.

But those people powering our economy will.

The Chancellor has made the wrong choices.

Now, the Chancellor says he can’t help everyone. And that’s absolutely true.

But who has the Chancellor been helping out?

Those who have been swindling the taxpayer.

The Chancellor left open the vaults for widespread waste, crony contracts and a frenzy of fraud.

It was, as his former Tory Treasury minister put it: “happy days if you are a crook”.

7 billion items of PPE not usable and now being burnt. Taxpayers’ money literally going up in smoke.

£3.5 billion worth of contracts awarded to friends, donors and pub landlords.

It gets worse.

The Chancellor has been signing cheques to fraudsters – including organised criminals and drug dealers.

Let’s put the Chancellor’s fraud failure in context.

He has lost a staggering £11.8 billion of public money to fraud.

This is twice the amount a previous Conservative government lost on Black Wednesday.

As a result of – let’s face it – this jaw-dropping incompetence, the Conservatives have been funding crime instead of fighting it.

And now the Chancellor has the audacity to come to British taxpayers asking them to pay more to fill his black hole.

But there can be no cover-up to hide political embarrassment.

Let’s call in the National Crime Agency to investigate.

We need answers.

People held to account.

Because let’s be clear: taxpayers want their money back.

The truth is Mr Speaker, people can no longer afford the Conservatives.

Working families can’t. Pensioners can’t. Businesses can’t.

The weak growth forecasts we’ve seen today should be flashing red on the Chancellor’s desk.

And the Chancellor, says that ‘the work starts today’.

Is he serious?

The Conservatives have been in government now for 12 years, not 12 hours.

What’s taken them so long?

Because since his party entered government, the UK has experienced the biggest downgrade in growth of any major economy.

With the last Labour government economic growth was 2.1% a year.

12 years of the Conservatives and growth has averaged 1.5%.

And now we know that growth has been downgraded this year too.

Growth is essential for funding our public services, keeping taxes under control, and keeping a handle on public finances too.

That’s why Labour have announced a tough set of fiscal rules to get our debt and deficit down.

But the truth is that because of this government’s failure to get the economy growing, it’s this Chancellor that has put up taxes on families and businesses a staggering 15 times.

This Chancellor has raised taxes more in the last two years than any Chancellor in the last 50.

He says it’s all down to the pandemic.

But the truth is the Conservatives have become the party of high taxation because they are the party of low growth.

Now, I understand the Chancellor has a portrait of Nigel Lawson above his desk.

Well, today we’ve got an energy price crisis.

Record prices at the pumps.

Inflation is back.

And the truth is, he’s not Nigel Lawson, Mr Speaker.

He’s Ted Heath with an Instagram account.

Labour would be getting the economy firing on all cylinders. Ensuring we buy, make and sell more in Britain.

Scrapping business rates and replacing them with a fairer system fit for the 21st Century.

Something that small businesses and high street businesses are crying out for, and the Chancellor mentioned it not at all in his statement today.

A Climate Investment Pledge to decarbonise the economy, create good jobs in every part of Britain, and strengthen our energy security too.

Businesses are seeing unprecedented increases in their costs right now, but all we hear from this Chancellor today is a promise of jam tomorrow rather than the support that is needed now.

And today’s statement lacks a long term plan for productivity, skills and growth. Where is it Chancellor?

Mr Speaker I can’t help but feel that in both the Chancellor’s recent Mais Lecture and in his statement today, we are presented with increasingly incredible claims.

Perhaps the Chancellor has been taking inspiration from the characters in Alice in Wonderland. Or should I say – ‘Alice in Sunakland’.

Because nothing here is quite as it seems either.

It’s the sort of place where a Chancellor celebrates giving people £200 to help with spiralling energy bills,

before explaining that he needs it all back.

In Sunakland, the Chancellor proclaims “I believe in lower taxes.” While at the same time hiking Alice’s National Insurance contributions.

Alice asks the Chancellor: when did ‘lower’ taxes mean ‘higher’ taxes? Has ‘down’ really become the new ‘up’?

The Chancellor follows Humpty Dumpty’s advice and says “when I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”

Alice knows that under the Conservatives, taxes are at their highest level in decades – as a result of the policies of this very same Chancellor!

In fact this Chancellor was the only G7 Finance Minister to raise taxes on working people during this crucial year of recovery.

Curiouser and curiouser.

As Alice climbs out of the rabbit hole to leave Sunakland, she recalls the words of the White Rabbit, and concludes that perhaps the Chancellor’s “reality is just different from yours.”

The actual reality, Mr Speaker, is that this Chancellor’s failure to back a windfall tax and his stubborn desire to pursue a National Insurance tax rise are the wrong choices.

In eight days’ time, people’s energy bills will be rising by 54%.

Two weeks today the Chancellor’s latest tax hike will start hitting working people and their employers.

His National Insurance tax rise was a bad idea last September, and he’s admitted it’s an even worse one today.

The Chancellor is making an historic mistake.

Today was the day to scrap the tax rise on jobs.

Today was the day to bring forward a windfall tax.

Today was the day for the Chancellor to set out a plan to support British businesses.

But on the basis of the statement today – and the misguided choices of this Chancellor – families and businesses will from now on endure significant hardship as a result.

The Chancellor has failed to appreciate the scale of the challenge that we face.

And he is yet again making the wrong choices for our country.

The speech made by Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, in Bury on 20 January 2022.

It’s great to be in Bury today – a town with a central place in the story of our industrial heritage and in our economic future.

Home to John Kay, the inventor of the flying shuttle which made Lancashire home to Britain’s thriving textiles industry.

Birthplace too, of Sir Robert Peel, the last Prime Minister to split the Conservative Party. And why did he do so?

Because the Conservatives would not put the interests of the people of this country ahead of the interest of a well-connected, elite. How times change.

And so it is particularly fitting to welcome Bury South’s own Christian Wakeford to the Labour Party. Christian, like so many others, sees that our country needs Keir Starmer’s leadership and a Labour government now more than ever.

And it is great to be joined by James Frith, the former Labour MP for Bury North, and someone who I know will play a big part in Labour’s future too.

But I am here to talk about Britain’s economic future, and our potential as a country.

We are a country with so much going for us.

Dynamic industries with reach all around the world, not least our cultural industries, with venues all around the country, like the Met, where we are today – giving life to our towns and cities.

And millions of working people able to make a lasting contribution to the future of our country.

The question is: why is a country with such rich resources not seeing that potential realised? Why are so many working people here in Bury and all across the country not feeling the benefits?

And how have we become trapped in this cycle of low growth, low pay, and high taxes?

The answer is simple. It comes down to a decade of Conservative failure.

Their failure to plan ahead.

Their failure to work together with business and industry.

And their failure to put the national interest above the interests of their friends and donors, utterly removed from the lives of working people.

For the best part of a decade, I worked as an economist at the Bank of England.

My first job there was to analyse the Japanese economy. Japan had just reached the end of what was often called its ‘Lost Decade’. We now talk about Japan’s ‘Lost Decades’ – thirty years of stagnant growth.

I saw the perils of an economy becoming trapped in a cycle where demand is sucked out of the economy and growth suppressed.

Britain has been through its own lost decade.

And so Covid hit us harder than other countries, in terms of lives lost, and the hit to our economy.

We have a choice.

We can continue down the path of another Lost Decade. Or we can take an approach based on bringing people together in a national endeavour, and on understanding that Britain’s real wealth is found – not in the bank accounts of friends and donors of the Conservative Party – but in the effort and talent of tens of millions of working people in this country.

Labour has a plan to build a stronger economy based on exactly that approach.

A plan to give people the respect they deserve.

A plan for real economic security.

A plan for prosperity in every part of Britain.

That is the plan that I will set out today.

But first, let’s look at where we are. While ministers worry only about the political costs of their parties, ordinary people are facing a cost of living crisis – with prices rising at the supermarket and the at petrol pump, energy bills soaring, and real wages falling.

People rightly expect leadership from government.

But instead they are being left to shoulder the burden alone, with the added insult of the triple whammy of a freeze on the income tax threshold, rising council tax, and a hike in National Insurance contributions.

Now is the wrong time to raise taxes on ordinary working people.

Labour would keep bills down by cutting VAT on energy, and expanding the Warm Homes Discount, taking at least £200 off the typical bill – with up to £400 in additional support for low and middle earners and pensioners – paid for by a windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas profits.

But this isn’t just about the short-term. As Professor Dieter Helm has shown, the global spike in gas prices has exposed the government’s failure to plan, leaving us uniquely exposed.

And it’s not just energy. That is just one chapter in a decade-long story of economic failure.

Between 1997 and 2010, when Labour were in government, the UK economy grew at 2.3% a year. Over the decade leading up to the pandemic it grew by an average of 1.8% a year.

And now the Bank of England expects growth to fall to as low as 1 per cent by the end of this Parliament, while other countries in the OECD are expected to grow at almost twice that rate.

This is the British economy according to Rishi Sunak.

No matter how much he tells us he wants to keep borrowing down and taxes low, the effect of such anaemic growth is devastating for our public finances.

If we could catch up with the growth rate of our best-performing peers, by 2030 the UK would have £75bn more in tax receipts – a growth dividend able to ease the burden of taxes on working people and start to repair the damage done to our overstretched public services over a decade of underinvestment.

Another Lost Decade isn’t inevitable.

These failures sit squarely on the shoulders of the Conservatives. Their policies have choked off growth and squeezed living standards.

The Conservatives have become the party of high taxation because they are the party of low growth.

But the choices they make on tax show whose side they’re on. And it’s certainly not the side of the tens of millions of people hit by the cost of living crisis.

Their approach isn’t just unfair – though it is.

It isn’t just going to make life that much harder for working people – though it will.

It won’t work.

As the TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady has said:

‘Our economy will only recover when working people can afford to spend in local shops and businesses’.

I’ve been hearing the same from businesses I speak to, concerned that customers will stay away as they feel the hit to their purses and their wallets.

It’s a vicious circle. Tory policies fail to deliver growth, and their response is policies that squeeze growth further.

It’s like trying to drive with the brakes on.

It’s no wonder the Tories have failed to deal with the cost of living crisis, because the Tories are the cost of living crisis.

We need a serious plan to deliver higher growth, built on the knowledge that wealth doesn’t just trickle from the top down, but comes from the bottom up and the middle out.

A plan that can drive up living standards, fund the public services we need, and allow us to get the national debt falling.

Under Keir Starmer’s leadership, Labour has changed, but so too have the Conservatives.

The Conservatives once called themselves the party of business. That’s a distant memory.

When the Prime Minister said ‘F- business’, I thought it was a throwaway remark. Little did I know it would be the central organising principle of his government.

And what’s left?

A government concerned not with unleashing the talents of British people, empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs, supporting British business, and sharing opportunity widely, but instead with selling access to the corridors of power.

A party not of productive business, but of crony capitalism. A government of waste – wasted money, wasted talent and wasted potential. This calls for a new contract between government and the British people.

That is what underpins Labour’s plan.

A plan to break us out of this cycle of high taxes, high prices and low growth.

A plan to get our economy firing on all cylinders, in every part of the country and every sector of the economy.

A plan that is proudly pro-worker, and proudly pro-business.

A plan for an industrial Britain, a learning Britain, an investing Britain, an innovative Britain, and a trading Britain.

Let me set these out.

First is a serious strategy for an industrial Britain, fit for the 21st century.

Where the Conservatives scrapped their own Industrial Strategy Council, Labour will create an industrial strategy built on an ethos of cooperation across the public and private sectors, employers and workers.

To unlock the brilliance of our leading businesses and entrepreneurs, mobilising these immense resources to create good work and economic growth in every part of Britain, and ensure that our communities can take pride in great British industries.

Britain has great strengths, whether in our world-leading creative industries, our automotive sector, or life sciences.

We have advantages in industries that will be vital to our green transition, including tidal and wind energy as well as the technologies needed for carbon capture and storage, and we already have great businesses leading the way, like Switch Mobility, in my own city of Leeds, who are pioneering the transition to electric buses – cheaper and better for the environment.

And initiatives we will build on like the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre, supporting the scale-up of the manufacture of batteries for electric vehicles and other applications.

Labour will continue to work with industry to develop plans for these and other sectors.

Of course industrial strategy is about making sure that we are succeeding in the most high-tech industries.

But it’s not enough for an industrial strategy to focus on a small number of businesses in a small number of sectors.

As the University of Manchester’s Karel Williams has long argued, we must attend to the foundations of our economy, without which we could not enjoy healthy lives or strong communities, but which have been neglected by government for too long.

Whether that’s our high street businesses, or sectors in which millions work to provide us with care, transport, energy and water, and food on the shelves.

It’s what I call the everyday economy.

Millions work in it. We all rely on it.

The state of our everyday economy really matters.

Because driving up pay and conditions in the everyday economy is key to increasing spending power in our communities and reviving our high streets.

Because if we want to drive up national productivity then it’s not only a few businesses at the leading edge which need to feel the benefits of new technologies and investment.

And because those foundations provide us with security as a society – especially when a crisis hits.

That calls for industrial strategies for sectors like care which have too often been overlooked, breaking loose of our cycle of long hours, low pay and low productivity, with a new deal for work.

And supporting those businesses which give life to our high streets by abolishing business rates and replacing them with a fair system that levels the playing field between online multinationals and high street businesses.

A real plan for the economy begins with the understanding that those industries of the future and the overlooked sectors on which we all rely are two sides of the same coin – the success of each dependent on the other – that no matter how innovative, no business can thrive without those strong foundations.

And any government serious about the strength of our economy and the welfare of our people will have a plan for both to thrive, together.

Second: we need a learning Britain.

We must ask ourselves how any country can achieve its potential when over 200,000 primary age children live in local areas where there are no good or outstanding schools, while record numbers of businesses report challenges getting the skilled staff they need.

Keir Starmer has set out a plan to make sure every young person leaves education ready for life and ready for work, with the practical skills, the careers advice and the experience they need to thrive in a modern economy.

And Labour has launched a new Council of Skills Advisers last year, to rethink how we approach skills for the decades ahead.

We need to expand opportunities for school leavers too.

But the Conservatives have shown themselves incapable of reversing the decline in apprenticeships, which has seen nearly 200,000 opportunities lost under their leadership, including a fall of 50% in the number of 16 to 18-year-olds starting an apprenticeship.

Labour would start now with our plan to create apprenticeship opportunities for young people – which could have seen one hundred thousand extra apprenticeships created this year – to drive our economic recovery.

Third: an investing Britain.

Over the last decade, a lack of investment has been holding Britain back.

In the nine years leading up to the pandemic the UK ranked third last out of the 38 countries in the OECD for investment as a proportion of GDP. And over the next five years, the UK is forecast to have a near £800 billion investment gap compared to other OECD economies.

The Director of the CBI, Tony Danker, has been clear about what’s needed: supporting business to invest, he says, will require ‘catalytic public investment’.

That’s what Labour’s climate investment pledge does – £28bn every year for each and every year of the decade – to ensure the industries and jobs of the future are found all across Britain.

Giga-factories to build batteries for electric vehicles, a thriving hydrogen industry, offshore wind with turbines made in Britain, planting trees and building flood defences, getting energy bills down and guaranteeing Britain’s energy security, and allowing our economy to adapt as we drive down our carbon emissions.

This is a global race for the jobs of the future.

As the former governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney has said, we will require significant private investment alongside public to meet the challenges and opportunities of net zero.

Our climate investment pledge will leverage at least as much again in private investment, by giving businesses certainty and confidence.

We will also catalyse private investment by supporting businesses to focus on the long-term good of the company, through changing the priority duty of directors, and by replacing business rates with a new system of business taxation that properly encourages growth and investment.

Labour’s fiscal rules would ensure that necessary investment can take place in a way that supports sustainable public finances, not unlike the government’s rules which have already to led to the cancellation of the Northern Powerhouse Rail.

As well as an investment Britain we need an innovative Britain.

A Labour government will create the conditions for new, innovative businesses to start, grow and thrive – whether that is through a fair tax system that encourages and rewards growth, or by directly supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs through our target to help create 100,000 new businesses over the next five years – with a particular focus outside London and the South East.

Initiatives like B Corporations and The Purposeful Company show how a new way of doing business is on the rise, one that understands the value of working in partnership with workers and communities.

Keir Starmer has committed the next Labour government to a minimum target of three percent of GDP invested in R&D, from both the public and private sectors.

53% of UK research and development funding is directed at London and the greater South East – which benefits hugely from the Golden Triangle of London, Oxford and Cambridge.

The comparative total for the entire north – from Newcastle to Bradford, Wigan to Grimsby – is just 16%.

We will support our northern universities, colleges and businesses not just to drive innovation, but to make sure that the fruits of the work of our leading scientists and institutions benefit small and medium-sized business, and are felt across our regions – so we can drive up productivity across the economy.

And there are great examples of work already being done and potential to be unleashed with the right support.

Like Northern Gritstone, a patient capital venture headed by Lord Jim O’Neill, formed in partnership with the universities of Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield with the aim of providing a pipeline for research to develop into successful businesses – creating wealth and jobs.

Britain is a country of creators, of makers and of problem-solvers.

We need a government that understands the value of our collective ideas and innovations, from the shopfloor to the boardroom.

And to unleash our potential we will build a trading Britain.

A truly patriotic government will champion British businesses at home and abroad.

The first step is to make Brexit work for the British people – addressing the flaws in the Tories’ deal that are hitting our food and drinks manufacturers, creative industries and professionals.

A Labour government won’t stand by on the side-lines and let British businesses and consumers pay the price for the mess the Tories have made. And we will seize new opportunities for British businesses to thrive at home and abroad.

We are a competitive and highly-skilled nation. We can work with our friends and neighbours to raise standards and do trade better.

We will build on the UK-EU trade deal in the interests of British businesses to cut red tape and make life easier for our exporters.

And with our plan to buy, make and sell more in Britain, we will use all the tools at government’s disposal to support businesses in this country – leading a culture change at the heart of government, putting local industries first and ensuring major infrastructure projects use, where possible, materials made here in Britain.

Asking every public body to increase the number of contracts to British firms, big and small to grow our industries and increase standards, while strengthening domestic supply chains and investing in the reshoring of jobs back to Britain.

Running throughout this Plan is a commitment to a stronger economy for every part of Britain.

In too many parts of our country, confidence in the future does not yet match pride in the past.

I spent three years working at HBOS in Halifax, so I know well what it can mean to a town to have a world-recognised business rooted in the local area.

But investment, jobs and opportunities have not been evenly spread across the country and it’s taken its toll on families and working people. Many people have had to move many miles away to find decent opportunities to get on.

So our mission is to create more and better jobs that are closer to home, so people have a real choice.

As research from IPPR shows, the Tories have taken £413 from every person, through cuts to local council funding, with just £32 returned in levelling up for the North.

Even then, the government doesn’t trust people to set out their own priorities, adopting a top-down approach.

It’s people on the ground, in their communities, who best understand what they need – the assets they can build on, and how to fulfil their ambitions.

There’s so much creativity in our regional towns and cities, building on our industrial past but adapting to the economy of the future.

Like Castleton Mills in my own constituency, once a key part of West Yorkshire’s textiles industry, but now a creative, collaborative space housing freelancers, remote workers and start-ups – including Northern Bloc Ice cream, and businesses from music promotion to digital content.

This creativity and resourcefulness is there to be unleashed all across our great country.

The Prime Minister’s survival strategy may involve wrecking our historic institutions and dragging the country’s global reputation down with him, but I reject the idea our best days are behind us – that we are fated to weaker growth and diminishing living standards.

There have never in living memory been so many opportunities for investment in new industries, new jobs, and new growth that can be felt in all parts of the country.

We need a future-looking government, working in a spirit of cooperation with businesses and trade unions to plan for the long term, to seize those opportunities.

The choice ahead of our country is this:

Another Lost Decade of low growth, high taxes, and a deepening cost of living crisis.

Or a contract between British government and the British people, a national effort to build a stronger economy, more resilient public services – and prosperity felt in every part of Britain.

That means real economic and energy security.

It means good jobs and thriving businesses in every town.

It means strong public services paid for by fair taxes and strong growth.

It means Britain’s best days lie ahead.

Thank you.

The comments made by Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, on 18 December 2021.

We’ve seen throughout this pandemic how especially hard it has been for many people on low wages, insecure work or are self-employed when they are sick or need to self-isolate. It is unacceptable that in 21st Century Britain anyone should feel they can’t afford to get sick, yet that is the reality for many.

Labour would improve the level of statutory sick pay and increase its coverage to reflect the modern world of work, while valuing the many employers who do provide decent sick pay for their workforce.

The sorry state of sick pay in Britain was an issue before the pandemic but the Chancellor’s inaction has made people poorer and tragically will have led to an increase in the spread of the virus.

The comments made by Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, on 16 December 2021.

Prices have been soaring and many are feeling the pinch, so families will be concerned about additional pressures on their finances from higher mortgage payments and other debt.

The Chancellor should get on a plane back from California and get to work on a plan for growth, and crucially a plan to tackle the cost of living crisis.

That must start immediately by scrapping VAT on household gas and electricity bills to ease some of the burden this winter.

The speech made by Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the House of Commons on 27 October 2021.

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.

Families struggling with the cost of living crisis, businesses hit by a supply chain crisis, those who rely on our schools and our hospitals and our police – they won’t recognise the world that the Chancellor is describing. They will think that he is living in a parallel universe.

The Chancellor in this budget, has decided to cut taxes for banks. So, Madame Deputy Speaker, at least the bankers on short haul flights sipping champagne will be cheering this budget today.

And the arrogance, after taking £6 billion out of the pockets of some of the poorest people in this country, expecting them to cheer today for £2 billion given to compensate.

In the long story of this Parliament, never has a Chancellor asked the British people to pay so much for so little.

Time and again today, the Chancellor compared the investments that he is making to the last decade. But who was in charge in this lost decade? They were.

So, let’s just reflect on the choices the Chancellor has made today – the highest sustained tax burden in peacetime.

And who is going to pay for it?

It’s not international giants like Amazon – the Chancellor has found a tax deduction for them. It’s not property speculators – they’ve already pocketed a stamp duty cut. And it’s clearly not the banks – even though bankers’ bonuses are set to hit a record high this year.

Instead, the Chancellor is loading the burden on working people. A National Insurance Tax rise – on working people. A Council Tax hike – on working people. And no support today for working people with VAT on their gas and electricity bills.

And what are working people getting in return? A record NHS waiting list, with no plan to clear it, no way to see a GP and still having to sell their home to pay for social care.

Community policing nowhere to be seen, a court backlog leaving victims without justice and almost every rape going unprosecuted.

A growing gap in results and opportunities between children at private and state schools. Soaring number of pupils in supersize classes and no serious plan to catch up on learning stolen by the virus. £2 million announced today – a pale imitation of the £15 billion catch up fund that the Prime Minister’s own education tsar said was needed. No wonder, Madame Deputy Speaker, that he resigned.

Now the Chancellor talks about world class public services. Tell that to a pensioner waiting for a hip operation. Tell that to a young woman waiting to go to court to get justice. Tell that to a mum and dad, waiting for their child the mental health support they need.

And the Chancellor says today that he has realised what a difference early years spending makes. I would just say to the Chancellor, has he ever heard of the Sure Start programme that this Tory government has cut?

And why are we in this position? Why are British businesses being stifled by debt while Amazon gets tax deductions?

Why are working people being asked to pay more tax and put up with worse services?

Why are billions of pounds in taxpayer money being funnelled to friends and donors of the Conservative party while millions of families are having £20 a week taken off them?

Madam Deputy Speaker, why can’t Britain do better than this?

The Government will always blame others. It’s business’ fault, it’s the EU’s fault, it’s the public’s fault.

The global problems, the same old excuses. But the blunt reality is this – working people are being asked to pay more for less for three simple reasons:

Economic mismanagement,

An unfair tax system,

And wasteful spending.

Each of these problems is down to 11 years of Conservative failure and they shake their heads but the cuts to our public services have cut them to the bone. And while the Chancellor and the Prime Minister like to pretend they are different, the Budget they’ve delivered today will only make things worse.

The solution starts with growth. The Government is caught in a bind of its own making. Low growth inexorably leads to less money for public services, unless taxes rise.

Under the Conservatives, Britain has become a low growth economy. Let’s look at the last decade – the Tories have grown the economy at just 1.8 percent a year.

If we had grown at the same rate as other advanced economies, we could have spent over £30bn to invest in public services without needing to raise taxes.

Let’s compare this to the last Labour Government. Even taking into account the global financial crisis, Labour grew the economy much faster – 2.3 percent a year.

If the Tories matched our record, we would have spent £30bn more on public services without needing to raise taxes.

It could not be clearer. The Conservatives are now the party of high taxation, because the Conservatives are the party of low growth.

The Office for Budget Responsibility confirmed this today – that we will be back to anaemic growth. The OBR said that by the end of this Parliament, the UK economy will be growing by just 1.3%. Which is hardly the plan for growth that the Chancellor boasted about today, hardly a ringing endorsement of his announcements.

Under the Tory decade we have had ow growth and there’s not much growth to look forward to.

The economy has been weakened by the pandemic but also by the Government’s mishandling of it.

Responding to the virus has been a huge challenge. Governments around the world have taken on debt, but our situation is worse than other countries.

Worse, because our economy was already fragile going into the crisis. Too much inequality, too much insecure work, too little resilience in our public services.

And worse, because the Prime Minister dithered and delayed, against scientific advice – egged on by the Chancellor – we ended up facing harsher and longer restrictions than other countries.

So, as well as having the highest death toll in Europe, Britain suffered the worst economic hit of any major economy.

The Chancellor now boasts that we are growing faster than others, but that’s because we fell the furthest.

And whilst the US and others have already bounced back to pre-pandemic levels, the UK hasn’t. Our economy is set to be permanently weaker.

On top of all of that, the Government is now lurching from crisis to crisis. People avoiding journeys because they can’t fill up their petrol tank is not good for the economy. People spending less because the cost of the weekly shop has exploded is not good for the economy. And British exporters facing more barriers than their European competitors because of the deal that this government did is not good for the economy.

If this were a plan, it would be economic sabotage. When the Prime Minister isn’t blagging that this chaos is part of his cunning plan, he says he’s “not worried about inflation.”

Tell that to families struggling with rising gas and electricity bills, with rising prices of petrol at the pump and with rising food prices. He’s out of touch, he’s out of ideas and he’s left working people out of pocket.

Madam Deputy Speaker, Conservative mismanagement has made the fiscal situation tight. And when times are tight it’s even more important to ensure that taxes are fair, that taxpayers get value for money. But the Government fails on both fronts.

We have a grossly unfair tax system with the burden heaped on working people.

Successive budgets have raised council tax, income tax and now National Insurance. But taxes on those with the broadest shoulders, those who earn their income from stocks, shares, and property portfolios have been left largely untouched.

Businesses based on the high street are the lifeblood of our communities and often the first venture for entrepreneurs.

But despite what the Chancellor has said today, businesses will still be held back by punitive and unfair business rates. The Government has failed to tax online giants and watered-down global efforts to create a level playing field.

And just when we need every penny of public money to make a difference, we have a government that is the by-word for waste, cronyism and vanity projects.

We’ve had £37 billion for a test and trace system that the spending watchdog says, ‘treats taxpayers like an ATM cash machine’. A yacht for ministers, a fancy paint job for the Prime Minister’s plane and a TV studio for Conservative Party broadcasts, which seems to have morphed into the world’s most expensive home cinema.

£3.5bn of Government contracts awarded to friends and donors of the Conservative Party, a £190 million loan to a company employing the PMs former Chief of Staff, £30 million to the former Health Secretary’s pub landlord. And every single one of those cheques signed by the Chancellor.

And now he comes to ordinary working people and asks them to pay more. More than they have ever been asked to pay before and at the same time, to put up with worse public services. All because of his economic mismanagement, his unfair tax system and his wasteful spending.

There are of course some welcome measures in this budget today, as there are in any budget.

Labour welcomes the increase in the National Minimum Wage, though the Government needs to go further and faster. If they had backed Labour’s position of an immediate rise to at least £10 an hour then a full-time worker on the minimum wage would be in line for an extra £1,000 a year.

Ending the punitive public sector pay freeze is welcome, but we know how much this Chancellor likes his smoke and mirrors. So, we’ll be checking the books to make sure the money is there for a real terms pay rise.

Labour also welcomes the Government’s decision to reduce the Universal Credit taper rate, as we have consistently called for. But the system has got so far out of whack that even after this reduction, working people on universal credit still face a higher marginal tax rate than the Prime Minister. And those unable to work – through no fault of their own – still face losing over £1000 a year. And for families who go out to work everyday but don’t get government benefits, on an average wage, who have to fill up their car with petrol to get to work, who do that weekly shop and who see their gas and electricity prices go up – this budget today does absolutely nothing for them.

We have a cost-of-living crisis.

The Government has no coherent plan to help families to cope with rising energy prices. Whilst we welcome the action taken today on Universal Credit, millions will struggle to pay the bills this winter.

The Government has done nothing to help people with their gas and electricity bills with that cut in VAT receipts as Labour has called for. A cut that is possible because we are outside the European Union and can be funded by the extra VAT receipts that have been experienced in the last few months.

Working people are left out in the cold while the Government hammers them with tax rises.

National Insurance is a regressive tax on working people, it is a tax on jobs.

Under the Chancellor’s plans, a landlord renting out dozens of properties won’t pay a penny more. But their tenants, in work, will face tax rises of hundreds of pounds a year. And he is failing to tackle another huge issue of the day. Adapting to climate change.

Adapting to climate change presents opportunities – more Jobs, lower bills and cleaner air. But only if we act now and at scale. According to the OBR, failure to act will mean public sector debt explodes later, to nearly 300% of GDP.

The only way to be a prudent and responsible Chancellor is to be a Green Chancellor. To invest in the transition to a zero-carbon economy and give British businesses a head-start in the industries of the future.

But with no mention of climate in his conference speech and the most passing of references today, we are burdened with a Chancellor unwilling to meet the challenges we face.

Homeowners are left to face the costs of insulation on their own, industries like steel and hydrogen are in a global race without the support they need and the Chancellor is promoting domestic flights over high speed rail int he week before COP26.

It is because of this Chancellor that in the very week we try and persuade other countries to reduce emissions, this Government can’t even confirm it will meet its 2035 climate reduction target.

Madam Deputy Speaker, everywhere working people look at the moment they see prices going up and shortages on the shelves. But this Budget did nothing to address their fears.

Household budgets are being stretched thinner than ever but this Budget did nothing to deal with the spiralling cost of living. It is a shocking missed opportunity by a government that is completely out of touch.

There is an alternative. Labour would scrap the business rates and replace it with something much better by ensuring online giants pay their fair share. That’s what being pro-business looks like.

We wouldn’t put up National Insurance for working people, we would ensure those with the broadest shoulders pay their share. That’s what being on the side of working people looks like.

We’d end the £1.7 billion subsidy the Government gives private schools and put it straight into local state schools. That’s what being on the side of working families looks like.

We’d deliver a climate investment pledge – £28bn every year for the rest of the decade. That’s Giga-factories to build batteries for electric vehicles, a thriving hydrogen industry and retrofitting, so we keep homes warm and get energy bills down. That’s what real action on climate change looks like.

This country deserves better but they’ll never get it under this Chancellor who gives with one hand but takes so much more with the other.

The truth is this – what you get with these two is a classic con game. It’s like one of those pickpocketing operations you see in crowded places. The Prime Minister is the front man – distracting people with his wild promises. All the while, his Chancellor dips his hand in their pocket. It all seems like fun and games until you walk away and realise your purse has been lifted.

But people are getting wise to them. Every month they feel the pinch. They are tired of the smoke and mirrors, of the bluster, of the false dawns, of the promises of jam tomorrow.

Labour would put working people first. We’d use the power of government and the skill of business to ensure that the next generation of quality jobs are created right here, in Britain.

We’d tax fairly, spend wisely and after a decade of faltering growth, we’d get Britain’s economy firing on all cylinders.

That is what a Labour budget would have done today.

The speech made by Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, on 16 June 2021.

Five years ago, my friend and colleague Jo Cox was murdered. There is not a day goes by when I do not think of her, and I know that on both sides of the House she is missed dearly.

All the way through this pandemic we have said that the economic and health responses must go together. That means keeping support in place for as long as the public health measures demand it. When the public health restrictions are extended, as they were by the Prime Minister on Monday, the economic support should be extended too; otherwise we risk falling at the final hurdle. Having spent billions of pounds supporting the economy, it would be tragic to see thousands of businesses go to the wall just because the Government withdrew support a few weeks too soon. We are not calling for forever support, but for economic support that matches the timetable for opening up that the Government have set. That is the right thing for business, for workers, and for our economy too.

Let us be clear about why we are here today: the Government’s delay in putting India on to the red list has allowed a dangerous new variant to enter our country. That is why we have the highest covid infection rate per person across the whole of Europe—all because the Prime Minister wanted his VIP trip to India. It was vain and short-sighted and has been devastating for public health. As well as the health impact, our assessment, using Office for National Statistics data, tells us that the delay in reopening will cost the UK economy £4.7 billion. That is money that is not being spent in British businesses at a crucial time in our recovery. That £4.7 billion would have been used by businesses to pay commercial rents, to pay people’s wages, to invest, to take on new staff, and to pay taxes into the Treasury as well.

Of course I welcome what the Chief Secretary has to say today on commercial evictions, but the truth is that if the Chancellor believed that this economic package was enough, he would be here announcing it himself. Whatever this is, it is not doing “whatever it takes” to support British businesses and our economy. Given that the Government have moved the goalposts, let me ask the Chief Secretary why Ministers have not delayed the employer contributions to furlough, due to start on 1 July. Employers are being asked to pay more when they cannot even properly open for business.

The vast majority of the 1.8 million people still on furlough are in the very sectors most affected by the ongoing restrictions: hospitality, live events and travel. On 1 July, loans to those businesses start having to be repaid. The self-employed and those excluded from financial support will be worried about their futures. Grants are ending, business rate bills are arriving and furlough is tapering off—all immediately after the Government have announced an extension to restrictions. How on earth can the Treasury justify turning off support and sending businesses new tax bills when the Government are saying that those businesses cannot even open?

On Monday, the Prime Minister told the country that we need to learn to live with the virus. Where is the much-needed plan that would enable us to do that? Where is the plan for greater ventilation in workplaces, including public buildings and schools? Where is the plan to shift contact tracing to a local level, where we know it works best—not in a centralised, Serco-led call centre? Where is the proper support for people needing to self-isolate? Those are all essential measures to save lives and livelihoods, and to avoid the stop-start approach that has characterised the Government’s response to the pandemic.

Given the WhatsApp messages from the Prime Minister about his own Health Secretary that have been revealed today—Madam Deputy Speaker, I will use more diplomatic language than the Prime Minister could manage—how can we have confidence in Government Ministers when the Prime Minister thinks that the person in charge of the pandemic response is “hopeless”?

Mr Toby Perkins (Chesterfield) (Lab)

Not just “hopeless”.

Rachel Reeves

Not just “hopeless”. People have given up so much over the last year. We have pulled together and shown the best of our country. People have done everything that was asked of them and much, much more. We should not be in this position today. Businesses and workers do not deserve to have the rug pulled from under their feet at the eleventh hour. We want to see businesses make it through the pandemic and thrive again, because they are an important part of what makes our country so great and they are essential for our economic recovery. We need them and they need us today. That is why the economic support we have should match the health restrictions that are still in place, and that is what the Government have failed to deliver today.