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Yesterday, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, presented a Labour Party budget. The public have been asking for Labour’s purpose and principles to be more distinctly articulated. Through the decisions made – a shift to a more equitable tax system, focusing on wealth to pay for addressing child poverty, good public services and the living expenses – we have clearly demonstrated what we stand for.

This is why Labour MPs cheered in the Commons, and it’s why we are ready for the fights to come. And it’s why the protests from the conservative side began immediately.

The Central Political Divide in UK Government

The central dividing line in British politics is once again on the economy. On the one hand Labour, who want to change it so it benefits everyday working people, and on the other, our opponents, who favor the status quo and the unsuccessful doctrine of the past. We must now take on, and win, the argument.

The Tories were given 14 years to fix things and instead, by every standard, they got far more dire. Their doctrinaire austerity and supply-side economics – tax cuts for the wealthy, cutting off investment (leaving us with low productivity and wages), and failing to support young people post-Covid – proved ineffective.

Legacy of Decline Under the Former Government

Quality of life dropped by the largest margin since records began, child poverty reached record levels, NHS waiting lists in England were the highest they’ve ever been, wages remained flat, a housing crisis became entrenched, young people scarred by Covid were left on the scrapheap. The history of failure goes on.

A single budget alone can’t put all this right, so Labour has a comprehensive plan for rebuilding and for rewiring the country. And we have to go out and continue making the argument for why our strategy will yield benefits.

Welfare Spending and Youth Deprivation

During the Tories, welfare spending rose substantially. As did child poverty, because they failed to tackle the underlying issues: low pay, high housing costs, significant inequalities in education, health and regions. The state is forced to paying more to deal with the symptoms instead of the solution.

That’s why we are building more affordable homes than for a generation, raising wages and new rights for workers, massively boosting investment in infrastructure and new industries, getting waiting lists down and bringing down the costs of childcare and energy as we pursue clean power.

Removing the Two-Child Benefit Cap

This is also the reason we are completely justified to use this budget to lift the two-child benefit cap.

For almost a decade, since it was introduced, poorer families with children have suffered from a unjust social experiment that was marketed as fair for working people when it was the opposite. Most of the families impacted by it have a parent in work.

It has only served to push 300,000 more children into poverty – which, ultimately, costs us more, as well as being heartless and immoral.

Real Impact in Local Areas

From experience from my own constituency – where over 5,000 children will be lifted out of poverty as a result of ending the cap – the actual impact it’s had. Children wearing low-cost wellies as school shoes, children going to bed hungry and cold, living in overcrowded, mouldy homes, parents during the holidays relying on food banks for a modest meal or small gift for their kids.

I also see the impact on schools, teachers, social workers, doctors and charities who are already overburdened but have to divert time and resources to supporting children who are living with the results of deep poverty.

Long-Term Effects of Child Poverty

Just a quarter of pupils from the most disadvantaged families achieve five good GCSEs, compared with nearly three in four among affluent families. This predisposes them for the disadvantages they face throughout their lives: missed potential, economic struggles and poor health. Children who were raised in poverty are more likely to be unemployed or poor as adults.

Confronting child poverty isn’t just a ethical duty, it is a long-term investment. Poverty costs the economy significantly more than the £3bn cost of removing the two-child cap, or expanding free school meals.

This is the reason we acted urgently in the budget, despite the challenging economic context. Every day with this cap in place sees over a hundred additional children pushed into poverty. The benefits of lifting it will not occur overnight either, so acting early in the parliament was vital.

The cap was a totem to 14 years of failed conservative ideology. Now it is abolished.

Equitable Funding for Measures

We, as Labour, can also be explicit that these initiatives are being paid for in a fair way – from a new gambling levy, closing tax loopholes and a new “mansion tax”.

Final Thoughts

Equity and direction – that’s how we will win the battle of ideas. This budget is a clear statement that we gained the election as Labour, and will lead as Labour. As I repeatedly said during my campaign to become deputy leader, we must reclaim the political platform and set the agenda more strongly about what’s truly flawed with the country and how we are fixing it. We’ve certainly done that this week.

So let’s maintain it and win this fight about how we will rebuild Britain and tackle the entrenched inequalities impeding progress.