Chancellor Rachel Reeves will promise Britain on Monday that there shall be no return to “austerity” or sweeping spending cuts, despite earlier warnings of a tricky budget to repair the basics of the economy.
Following Labour's election victory in July, Reeves indicated in her first budget on October 30 that taxes were more likely to rise because there was a £22 billion ($29 billion) hole in public funds.
It also announced that tens of millions of pensioners would now not receive heating allowances in winter. The government said it had not desired to make this decision, but unions and other traditional Labour supporters criticised it.
At the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, northern England, Reeves will use her keynote speech on Monday to reiterate that she is going to take the crucial decisions to make sure the soundness that she believes is “essential for businesses to be able to invest with confidence and families to plan for the future.”
“There will be no return to austerity. Conservative austerity was a destructive decision for our public services – and also for investment and growth,” Reeves will say, in accordance with excerpts from her speech.
“We have to confront the legacy of the Tories (Conservatives) and that means tough choices. But we will not allow that to cloud our ambitions for Britain.”
Amid criticism that Reeves and Prime Minister Keir Starmer have taken an excessively gloomy view that – together with an uproar over fundraising – has solid a shadow over what would otherwise have been a celebration by Labour of its first election victory in 14 years, she is going to point to a brighter future beyond the difficult circumstances she inherited.
“I see the price that awaits us if we make the right decisions now. And stability is the crucial foundation on which all our ambitions will be built,” she is going to say.
Reeves may even reiterate Labour's election pledge not to extend income tax, national insurance contributions, VAT and corporation tax.
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