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Just recently, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, delivered a Labour Party budget. People have been calling for Labour’s purpose and values to be more distinctly expressed. By way of the choices made – a transition to a more equitable tax system, focusing on wealth to pay for tackling child poverty, quality public services and the living expenses – we have unequivocally demonstrated what we believe in.

This is why Labour MPs cheered in the Commons, and it’s why we are ready for the battles to come. And it’s why the cries from the right began right away.

The Main Political Divide in UK Government

The central dividing line in British politics is once again on the economy. On the one side Labour, who aim to change it so it benefits everyday working people, and on the other, our political opponents, who favor the current system and the unsuccessful ideology of the past. We must now take on, and win, the argument.

The Tories had 14 years to resolve things and instead, by every standard, they got much worse. Their doctrinaire austerity and trickle-down economics – tax breaks for the wealthy, reducing investment (causing us with low productivity and wages), and neglecting to support young people after the pandemic – didn’t work.

Record of Decline Under the Former Government

Living standards fell by the biggest amount since records began, child poverty reached record levels, NHS waiting lists in England were the highest they’ve ever been, wages were stagnant, a housing crisis took hold, young people scarred by Covid were abandoned. The record of failure continues.

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 continue making the argument for why our approach will reap dividends.

Social Security and Child Poverty

Under the Tories, welfare spending significantly increased. As did child poverty, because they failed to tackle the root causes: low pay, high housing costs, deep inequalities in education, health and regions. The state is forced to paying more to manage the effects instead of the solution.

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

Ending the Two-Child Benefit Cap

It’s also why we are absolutely right to use this budget to remove the two-child benefit cap.

For almost a decade, since it was introduced, poorer 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’s done nothing but push 300,000 more children into poverty – which, ultimately, costs us more, as well as being heartless and unethical.

Real Impact in Local Areas

I know from my own district – where over 5,000 children will be raised out of poverty as a result of abolishing the cap – the actual impact it’s had. Children wearing £1 wellies as school shoes, children going to bed hungry and cold, living in overcrowded, damp homes, parents during the holidays depending on food banks for a simple 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.

Lasting Effects of Youth Hardship

Just one in four pupils from the most disadvantaged families achieve five good GCSEs, compared with nearly three in four among affluent families. This predisposes them for the challenges they face during 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.

Addressing child poverty isn’t just a moral imperative, it is a future-oriented strategy. Poverty costs the economy far, far more than the three billion pound cost of lifting the two-child cap, or extending free school meals.

This is the reason we acted urgently in the budget, despite the very difficult economic context. Every day with this cap in place sees over a hundred extra children pushed into poverty. The effects of lifting it won’t happen overnight either, so taking early action in the parliament was vital.

The cap was a symbol to 14 years of unsuccessful conservative ideology. Now it is abolished.

Equitable Financing for Policies

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

Final Thoughts

Fairness and purpose – 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 megaphone and set the agenda more forcefully about what’s really wrong with the country and how we are fixing it. We’ve certainly done that this week.

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