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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 clearly expressed. Through the choices made – a shift to a fairer tax system, focusing on wealth to pay for tackling child poverty, quality public services and the living expenses – we have clearly set out 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 cries from the conservative side began immediately.

The Main Dividing Line in UK Government

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

The Tories had 14 years to fix things and in reality, by every standard, they got much worse. Their doctrinaire austerity and supply-side economics – tax breaks for the wealthy, reducing investment (causing us with poor productivity and wages), and neglecting to support young people post-Covid – didn’t work.

Record of Failure Under the Previous Administration

Quality of life dropped 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 became entrenched, young people affected by Covid were left on the scrapheap. The history of failure continues.

One budget alone can’t put all this right, so Labour has a comprehensive plan for renewal and for restructuring the country. And we have to go out and keep making the argument for why our approach will reap dividends.

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, significant inequalities in education, health and regions. The state ends up paying more to manage the effects instead of the cure.

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

Ending 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 almost a decade, since it was introduced, low-income families with children have endured from a cruel social experiment that was branded 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, ultimately, costs us more, as well as being callous and unethical.

Real Impact in Communities

I know 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 £1 wellies as school shoes, children going to bed hungry and cold, living in cramped, mouldy 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 Consequences of Youth Hardship

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

Confronting child poverty isn’t just a ethical duty, it is a future-oriented strategy. Poverty costs the economy far, far more than the £3bn cost of lifting the two-child cap, or extending 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 won’t happen overnight either, so acting early in the parliament was vital.

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

Fair Financing for Measures

We, as Labour, can also be clear that these measures are being paid for in a fair way – from a new gambling levy, 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 definitive statement that we won 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 platform and set the agenda more forcefully about what’s really wrong with the country and how we are repairing it. We’ve certainly done that this week.

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