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Just recently, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, presented a Labour Party budget. People have been calling for Labour’s mission and values to be more clearly expressed. Through the decisions made – a transition to a fairer tax system, targeting wealth to pay for addressing child poverty, quality 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 ready for the battles to come. And it’s why the protests from the conservative side began right away.

The Main Dividing Line in British Politics

The central division 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 opponents, who support the current system and the unsuccessful doctrine of the past. We must now take on, and win, the argument.

The Tories were given 14 years to fix things and instead, by any measure, they got far more dire. Their ideological austerity and supply-side economics – tax cuts for the wealthy, reducing investment (leaving us with poor productivity and wages), and failing to support young people after the pandemic – proved ineffective.

Legacy of Failure Under the Previous Administration

Quality of life fell by the largest margin since records began, child poverty hit record levels, NHS waiting lists in England were the highest on record, wages remained flat, a housing crisis took hold, young people scarred by Covid were abandoned. The record of failure goes on.

A single 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 argument for why our strategy 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 root causes: low pay, high housing costs, deep inequalities in education, health and regions. The state ends up paying more to manage the symptoms instead of the cure.

That’s why we are constructing more affordable homes than for a generation, raising wages and enhanced protections for workers, massively boosting investment in infrastructure and new industries, getting waiting lists down and lowering the costs of childcare and energy as we drive for clean power.

Removing the Two-Child Limit

It’s also why 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 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 immoral.

Real Impact in Communities

From experience from my own district – 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 without food 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 results of severe deprivation.

Lasting Consequences of Youth Hardship

Just one in four pupils from the poorest families achieve five good GCSEs, compared with almost 75% among affluent families. This sets them up for the challenges they face throughout their lives: unrealized potential, financial struggles and poor health. Children who grew up in poverty are more likely to be jobless or poor as adults.

Addressing child poverty isn’t just a ethical duty, it is a future-oriented strategy. Poverty costs the economy significantly more than the three billion pound cost of removing the two-child cap, or extending free school meals.

This is the reason 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 vital.

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

Fair Funding for Policies

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

Final Thoughts

Equity and purpose – that’s how we will win the contest of ideas. This budget is a clear 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 seize back the political platform and set the agenda more strongly about what’s truly flawed with the country and how we are fixing it. We’ve definitely done that this week.

So let’s keep hold of it and prevail in this fight about how we will rebuild Britain and address the entrenched inequalities holding us back.