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Just recently, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, delivered a Labour budget. The public have been asking for Labour’s mission and values to be more distinctly articulated. Through the choices made – a transition to a fairer tax system, targeting wealth to pay for addressing child poverty, good public services and the living expenses – we have clearly set out what we stand for.

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

The Main Dividing Line in British Government

The primary division in British politics is yet again on the economy. On the one hand Labour, who want to change it so it helps everyday working people, and on the opposite side, our opponents, who favor the status quo and the failed doctrine 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 ideological austerity and supply-side economics – tax cuts for the wealthy, cutting off investment (leaving us with low productivity and wages), and failing to support young people after the pandemic – didn’t work.

Record of Failure Under the Former Government

Quality of life 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 history of failure continues.

One budget alone can’t fix everything, so Labour has a long-term plan for renewal and for restructuring the country. And we have to go out and continue making the case for why our strategy will reap dividends.

Social Security and Youth Deprivation

During the Tories, welfare spending significantly increased. 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 is forced to paying more to manage the effects instead of the solution.

It’s why we are building more social housing than for a generation, increasing 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.

Ending the Two-Child Benefit Cap

This is also the reason we are absolutely right 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 suffered from a cruel social experiment that was branded as fair for working people when it was the opposite. 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, ultimately, costs us more, as well as being callous and immoral.

Real Impact in Communities

I know from my own constituency – where over 5,000 children will be lifted 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 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 stretched but have to divert time and resources to supporting children who are living with the consequences of severe deprivation.

Lasting Effects of Child Poverty

Just a quarter of pupils from the poorest families achieve five good GCSEs, compared with nearly three in four among affluent families. This sets them up for the challenges they face throughout their lives: missed potential, financial 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 ethical duty, 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 expanding free school meals.

This is the reason we acted promptly in the budget, despite the challenging 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 crucial.

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

Fair Funding for Measures

We, as Labour, can also be explicit that these initiatives are being paid for in a just way – from a new gaming tax, 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 won the election as Labour, and will lead as Labour. As I consistently said during my campaign to become deputy leader, we must reclaim the political platform and define the narrative more strongly about what’s really wrong with the country and how we are fixing it. We’ve definitely done that this week.

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