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Just recently, the finance minister, Rachel Reeves, delivered a Labour Party budget. People have been asking for Labour’s mission and principles to be more distinctly expressed. By way of the choices made – a shift to a fairer tax system, targeting wealth to pay for tackling child poverty, quality public services and the living expenses – we have clearly demonstrated what we believe in.

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

The Central Dividing Line in UK Government

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

The Tories had 14 years to fix things and in reality, by any measure, they got far more dire. Their doctrinaire austerity and supply-side economics – tax breaks for the wealthy, reducing investment (causing us with low productivity and wages), and failing to support young people post-Covid – didn’t work.

Legacy of Failure Under the Former Government

Living standards dropped by the biggest amount since records began, child poverty reached record levels, NHS waiting lists in England were the highest on record, wages remained flat, a housing crisis became entrenched, young people affected by Covid were left on the scrapheap. The record of failure goes on.

One budget alone can’t fix everything, so Labour has a comprehensive plan for rebuilding and for rewiring the country. And we have to go out and continue making the case for why our strategy will yield benefits.

Welfare Spending and Youth Deprivation

Under the Tories, welfare spending rose substantially. 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 cure.

It’s why we are building more social housing than for a generation, raising wages and new rights for workers, greatly increasing investment in infrastructure and new industries, reducing waiting lists down and lowering the costs of childcare and energy as we drive for clean power.

Ending the Two-Child Limit

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

For eight long years, since it was enacted, poorer families with children have suffered from a cruel 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, in the end, costs us more, as well as being callous and immoral.

Tangible Effects in Local Areas

From experience from my own district – where over 5,000 children will be raised 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 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 consequences of deep poverty.

Long-Term Consequences of Youth Hardship

Just a quarter of pupils from the most disadvantaged families achieve five good GCSEs, compared with almost 75% among wealthier families. This sets them up for the challenges they face during their lives: unrealized potential, economic struggles and poor health. Children who grew up 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 three billion pound cost of removing the two-child cap, or expanding free school meals.

That’s why we acted urgently in the budget, despite the very difficult economic context. Every day with this cap in place sees more than 100 extra children pushed into poverty. The effects of lifting it will not occur overnight either, so acting early in the parliament was crucial.

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

Equitable Funding for Measures

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

Final Thoughts

Equity 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 repeatedly said during my campaign to become deputy leader, we must reclaim the political megaphone and set the agenda more forcefully about what’s truly flawed with the country and how we are fixing it. We’ve definitely done that this week.

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