Prime minister Keir Starmer has promised that his government’s first Budget will “invest in Britain’s future”.
Ahead of chancellor Rachel Reeves delivering the autumn Budget on October 30, Starmer has promised to “put Britain on a new path".
He said this path will be "one that chooses long-term growth to put more money in working people’s pockets and rebuild public services instead of a return to austerity”.
He explained that it is working people who pay the price when the government fails to deliver economic stability.
“They’ve had enough of slow growth, stagnant living standards, and crumbling public services and they know that austerity is no solution,” he explained.
“We choose a different path: honest, responsible, long-term decisions in the interests of working people.
“It’s stability that means we can invest, and reform that will maximise that investment.”
Additionally, Starmer also offered a warning on the current challenges facing the UK which he attributed to the last government covering up the state of public finances.
“We have to be realistic about where we are as a country,” he said.
“This is not 1997, when the economy was decent but public services were on their knees and it’s not 2010, where public services were strong, but the public finances were weak, these are unprecedented circumstances.”
However, Starmer pledged to deal with this challenging situation, stating: “It’s time we ran towards tough decisions, because ignoring them set us on a path of decline.
“It’s time we ignored the populist chorus of easy answers… we’re never going back to that.”
As a result, Starmer stated that his economic plan will change the long-term trajectory of British growth for the better by tackling the biggest challenges in the economy.
“Higher investment, we’re dealing with it, planning, we’re reforming it, the labour market, we’re getting people back to work while also making work pay.
“This is what fixing the foundations and delivering changes means and everyone in this country will benefit from this.”
tom.dunstan@ft.com
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