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Just recently, the finance minister, Rachel Reeves, delivered a Labour Party budget. The public have been calling for Labour’s mission and values to be more distinctly articulated. By way of the decisions made – a transition to a fairer tax system, targeting wealth to fund addressing child poverty, quality public services and the living expenses – we have clearly demonstrated what we stand for.

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

The Central Political Divide in British Politics

The primary division in British politics is yet 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 opponents, who favor the current system and the failed doctrine of the past. We must now confront, and win, the argument.

The Tories had 14 years to fix things and instead, by any measure, they got far more dire. Their doctrinaire austerity and supply-side economics – tax cuts for the wealthy, cutting off investment (causing us with low productivity and wages), and neglecting to support young people after the pandemic – didn’t work.

Record of Failure Under the Former Government

Living standards fell 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 affected by Covid were left on the scrapheap. The record of failure goes on.

A single budget alone can’t put all this right, so Labour has a long-term plan for renewal and for restructuring the country. And we have to go out and keep making the argument for why our strategy will yield benefits.

Welfare Spending and Child Poverty

During 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.

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 lowering the costs of childcare and energy as we pursue clean power.

Removing the Two-Child Limit

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

For eight long years, 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 affected 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 immoral.

Real Impact in Local Areas

From experience from my own constituency – where over 5,000 children will be raised out of poverty as a result of abolishing the cap – the real impact it’s had. Children wearing low-cost wellies as school shoes, children going to bed hungry and cold, living in cramped, damp 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 redirect time and resources to supporting children who are living with the consequences of deep poverty.

Lasting Consequences of Child Poverty

Just a quarter of pupils from the poorest families achieve five good GCSEs, compared with almost 75% among affluent families. This sets them up for the disadvantages they face during their lives: unrealized potential, financial struggles and ill health. Children who grew up in poverty are more likely to be jobless 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 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 over a hundred extra children pushed into poverty. The effects of lifting it won’t happen overnight either, so acting early in the parliament was crucial.

The cap was a totem to 14 years of unsuccessful conservative ideology. Now it is gone.

Fair Funding for Measures

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 succeed in the battle of ideas. This budget is a definitive statement that we won 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 define the narrative more strongly about what’s truly flawed with the country and how we are repairing it. We’ve definitely done that this week.

So let’s maintain it and win this struggle about how we will rebuild Britain and address the deep inequalities holding us back.