In a rallying call to Labour members after a bruising few weeks, the Chancellor urged them to ‘take pride’ in the party’s achievements after almost 15 months in Downing Street
Rachel Reeves said today Britain has overcome greater challenges than it faces today as she urged the country to have “faith” in Labour’s plan.
In a rallying call to Labour members after a bruising few weeks, the Chancellor urged them to “take pride” in the party’s achievements after almost 15 months in Downing Street. She pointed to opening breakfast clubs in primary schools, expanding free school meals, a massive NHS cash boost, and a pay boost for millions in the public sector.
“No one said it was going to be easy,” Ms Reeves told conference delegates in Liverpool. “But take pride in what we are achieving together. Not just the pride in winning but pride too in the choices we are making and the lives we are changing. Remember that in every single one of the 451 days that we have been in office we have achieved more than in the more than 5,000 days that we spent powerless in opposition.”
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The Chancellor, who received a standing ovation, added: “Whatever tests confront us, have faith, because our party and our country have overcome greater challenges than these.” But Ms Reeves’s upbeat message came as she also attempted to prepare the country for November’s make-or-break Budget.
She warned the economy was facing “harsh global headwinds” ahead of the statement and would face “further tests” in the months ahead. Ms Reeves said: “In the months ahead we will face further tests, with the choices to come made all the harder by harsh global headwinds and the long-term damage done to our economy, which is becoming ever clearer.”
Earlier in the day she dropped a hint taxes could rise when she refused to repeat her pledge yesterday (MON) morning she won’t be “coming back for more tax”. Top minister Darren Jones also failed to rule out whether Labour would stick by its manifesto vow to not raise VAT, income tax or national insurance for working people.
The Prime Minister’s Chief Secretary told reporters: “I am not ruling anything out, or anything in. All I’m saying is today the manifesto stands. We’ve got a budget process to go through, and any decisions will be announced to Parliament in the normal way.”
During her speech, Ms Reeves also hit back at left-wing critics and said she would not rip up her spending rules and risk a repeat of the Liz Truss disaster. In what was widely viewed as criticism of the Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, she said: “There are still critics out there who would too readily forget the consequences of reckless economic choices.”
The Chancellor, who said she would never “squander” the trust voters placed in her last year, added: “I do know that there are still those who peddle the idea that we could just abandon economic responsibility and cast off any constraints on spending.
“They are wrong – dangerously so – and we need to be honest about what that choice would mean. Because when spending gets out of control, when market confidence is lost – that doesn’t just show up in some OBR report and some difficult headlines a few months later.
“It is felt, immediately, in the growing cost of essentials and rising interest rates. And let me tell you – there is nothing progressive, nothing Labour, about government using one in every £10 of public money it spends on financing debt interest.”
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The Chancellor also used her speech to launch a brutal assault on Nigel Farage’s Reform UK as the greatest threat to working people. She said the right-wing outfit would tear communities and families if it wins power at the next general election.
She said: “The single greatest threat to our way of life and to the living standards of working people is the agenda of Nigel Farage and the Reform Party. Whatever falsehoods they push, whatever easy answers they peddle, however willing they are to tear communities and families apart – they are not on the side of working people.”
And she told delegates the choice on offer was a Labour government that stands with its international allies, “or a Reform party in bed with Vladimir Putin “.
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Responding to Ms Reeves’s speech, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) general secretary Paul Nowak said she had shown her commitment to “stand on the side of working people”.
But he added: “After 14 years of Tory cuts and austerity, the damage still runs deep with the country in dire need of sustained investment for our hospitals, schools and local councils. That’s why at the Budget the government should be asking those with the broadest shoulders, like banks and gambling companies, to pay their fair share.
“This is not only the right thing to do – it’s popular right across the political spectrum, including with Reform leaning voters.”
Ms Reeves also insisted Labour was “not a party of protest” after her keynote address was briefly interrupted by a pro-Gaza demonstrator in the hall. The Chancellor told the heckler “we understand your cause” and highlighted the government’s decision to recognise the state of Palestinian after her address was disrupted by shouts of “mass starvation” and “genocide.”
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