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Just recently, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, presented a Labour Party budget. The public have been asking for Labour’s mission and principles to be more clearly expressed. By way of the choices made – a transition to a more equitable tax system, focusing on wealth to pay for addressing child poverty, quality public services and the cost of living – we have unequivocally demonstrated what we believe in.

That’s why Labour MPs cheered in the Commons, and it’s why we are ready for the fights to come. And it’s why the cries from the right began immediately.

The Central Dividing Line in UK Politics

The primary dividing line in British politics is yet again on the economy. On the one side Labour, who want to reform it so it helps ordinary working people, and on the opposite side, our opponents, who favor the status quo and the unsuccessful ideology of the past. We must now confront, and prevail in, the debate.

The Tories had 14 years to fix things and instead, by any measure, they got much worse. Their doctrinaire austerity and trickle-down economics – tax breaks for the wealthy, cutting off investment (causing us with low productivity and wages), and neglecting to support young people after the pandemic – proved ineffective.

Record of Decline Under the Previous 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 on record, wages were stagnant, a housing crisis became entrenched, young people scarred by Covid were abandoned. The record of failure goes on.

One budget alone can’t fix everything, so Labour has a long-term plan for rebuilding and for restructuring the country. And we have to go out and keep making the argument for why our strategy will yield benefits.

Social Security and Child Poverty

Under the Tories, welfare spending rose substantially. As did child poverty, because they failed to tackle the underlying issues: low pay, high housing costs, deep inequalities in education, health and regions. The state ends up paying more to manage the effects instead of the solution.

It’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 Limit

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

For almost a decade, since it was enacted, low-income families with children have endured from a cruel social experiment that was branded as fair for working people when it was anything but. 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, in the end, costs us more, as well as being heartless and unethical.

Tangible Effects in Local Areas

From experience from my own constituency – where over 5,000 children will be raised out of poverty as a result of ending the cap – the real impact it’s had. Children wearing £1 wellies as school shoes, children going to bed hungry and cold, living in cramped, mouldy homes, parents this Christmas depending 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 stretched but have to redirect time and resources to supporting children who are living with the results of severe deprivation.

Lasting Effects of Youth Hardship

Just a quarter of pupils from the poorest families achieve five good GCSEs, compared with nearly three in four among wealthier families. This sets them up for the challenges they face during their lives: unrealized potential, financial struggles and poor health. Children who were raised in poverty are more likely to be unemployed or poor as adults.

Addressing child poverty isn’t just a moral imperative, it is a long-term investment. Poverty costs the economy far, far more than the £3bn cost of lifting 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 won’t happen overnight either, so acting early in the parliament was vital.

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

Equitable Financing for Policies

We, as Labour, can also be clear that these initiatives are being funded in a fair way – from a new gaming tax, closing tax loopholes and a new “mansion tax”.

Final Thoughts

Fairness and purpose – that’s how we will succeed in the battle of ideas. This budget is a clear statement that we gained the election as Labour, and will govern as Labour. As I consistently said during my campaign to become deputy leader, we must seize back 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 definitely done that this week.

So let’s keep hold of it and prevail in this fight about how we will rebuild Britain and tackle the deep inequalities impeding progress.