Chancellor comes into conference in the city under pressure over her controversial move to cut winter fuel payments
Chancellor Rachel Reeves will promise there will be “no more austerity” under this Labour government when she addresses the party conference in Liverpool. Ms Reeves will deliver her key speech at the conference on Monday lunchtime.
Having become Britain’s first ever female Chancellor in July, Ms Reeves is already under pressure following her hugely controversial decision to scrap winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners. In her speech she will argue that tough decisions must be taken to undo the damage of the past 14 years of Tory rule.
But, ahead of her much-anticipated Budget in October, the Chancellor will promise not to return to the austerity agenda that caused so much damage in communities across Merseyside and around the country. She will say: “There will be no return to austerity. Conservative austerity was a destructive choice for our public services – and for investment and growth too.
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“We must deal with the Tory legacy and that means tough decisions. But we won’t let that dim our ambition for Britain. So it will be a budget with real ambition. A budget to fix the foundations. A budget to deliver the change we promised. A budget to rebuild Britain.”
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The Chancellor of the Exchequer will vow to deliver a Britain of “opportunity, fairness, and enterprise.” She will say that “growth is the challenge and investment is the solution.”
She will add: “I believe in a better Britain. A Britain of opportunity, fairness, and enterprise. I know that promise has felt far off in recent years. As our growth, productivity and family incomes have fallen behind. But it doesn’t have to be that way.”
With tough economic decisions ahead, Ms Reeves will vow not to increase increase National Insurance, the basic, higher or additional rate of income tax, or VAT in the budget on October 31.
She will tell the conference in Liverpool: “I can see the prize on offer, if we make the right choices now. And stability is the crucial foundation on which all our ambitions will be built. I believe in a better Britain.
“A Britain of opportunity, fairness, and enterprise. I know that promise has felt far off in recent years. As our growth, productivity and family incomes have fallen behind. But it doesn’t have to be that way.”
