Keir Starmer Says Austerity Is "No Solution" For Fixing The Economy
Prime Minister Keir Starmer gave a speech in the West Midlands on Monday morning (Alamy)
3 min read
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said that austerity is "no solution" to sluggish economic growth and struggling public services ahead of the Budget.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves will deliver the Labour Government's first Budget on Wednesday.
She is expected to announce tax rises and cuts to some departmental budgets having repeatedly stressed that the Government will need to make "tough choices" to close the "£22bn black hole" in the public finances left by the previous Conservative government.
However, she is also expected to set out plans to increase borrowing and spending in order to fund investment.
Speaking in the West Midlands on Monday ahead of the Budget, the Prime MInister said the Government would "reject" austerity in its first fiscal event since winning power in July.
"They [the public] have had enough of slow growth, stagnant living standards and crumbling public services. They know that austerity is no solution. And they’ve seen the chaos when politicians let borrowing get out of control," he said.
Starmer said the Government would deliver on the "mandate of change" by making "honest, responsible, long-term decisions in the interests of working people".
He also stressed that the Labour administration had inherited "unprecedented challenges" and that they would therefore have to be "realistic" about the state of the UK economy.
“This is not 1997, when the economy was decent but public services were on their knees," he said.
"And it’s not 2010, where public services were strong, but the public finances were weak."
While he said he was ready to be "judged" on his ability to deal with these challenges, he said he would "defend our tough decisions all day long" and "ignore the populist chorus of easy answers".
“If people want to criticise the path we choose, that’s their prerogative," he said, in remarks directed at the Conservatives and other opposition parties.
"But let them then spell out a different direction.
"If they think the state has grown too big, let them tell working people which public services they would cut. If they don’t see our long-term investment in infrastructure as necessary, let them explain to working people how they would grow the economy for them."
Starmer and his Cabinet ministers have faced repeated questions by reporters on how they define "working people", as the Labour Party election manifesto explicitly promised to not increase taxes for this group.
Government figures have suggested that this Budget could include tax rises for employers, including small business owners, leading to some Conservative MPs accusing Labour of lying about their plans.
A new poll by Savanta, shared with PoliticsHome, shows that voters want the Chancellor to prioritise spending on the National Health Service above all other government departments in the Budget, with exactly three quarters of people believing the health service "should be protected" from spending cuts.
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