This week will see the first budget of a new UK Labour Government. After 14 years of Tory chaos, division and decline, it will continue the job of turning the page on those lost Tory years, fixing the foundations and rebuilding our country.
This week you will hear many, the Tories and the SNP, who will want to pretend that all of the UK’s problems started three months ago or that somehow all of the UK’s problems can be fixed with one budget.
They will be insulting the intelligence of the Scottish people by attempting to absolve the Tories of their woeful record or by trying to downplay the damage done by David Cameron, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak et al.
Scots know how bad the Tories were, what damage they were doing and why it was so important to get them out. They know that an incoming Labour Government had the worst inheritance of any new government, but they also know things can and will get better now that the Tories are finally gone.
This Budget will be a turning point and nothing like the Budgets of recent times. In 2010, George Osborne delivered an Austerity Budget that ripped the heart out of local communities and punished working families. In 2022, Kwasi Kwarteng’s reckless ‘Mini-Budget’ sent markets into a panic and Scots’ mortgages and bills rocketing. It was so catastrophic he was sacked before the ink was dry but not before it sent bills sky high.
This week, Rachel Reeves will make history as the first female Chancellor to deliver a Budget. She knows that fixing the foundations of our economy means facing up to the £22 billion black hole that the Tories tried to hide head on, or it will pose risks for years to come. That is money the Tories spent without any idea of where it was coming from, gambling the future of our country. But that can’t be the scale of our ambition.
I’ve been clear and consistent about what Scotland needs from the first Labour budget. Firstly, we have to keep the promises we made in the election and deliver on the first steps committed in our manifesto.
Secondly, this must be a Budget that marks the end of austerity — a despicable Tory policy that decimated public services and targeted the most vulnerable while giving those that caused economic chaos a free pass.
Thirdly, I recognise that the Chancellor will have to raise revenues, but any tax rises must fall on those with the broadest shoulders, and not hit working people who have already borne the brunt of the Tories crashing the economy and SNP income tax hikes.
And finally, we need a Budget that prioritises investment and growth. We need to see a significant increase in capital investment to ensure that we have the infrastructure, hospitals and schools we need as well as supporting the key sectors that can drive economic growth – clean energy, digital innovation, life sciences, Brand Scotland and tourism.
This is the change that Scotland needs — and I will be doing everything I can to make sure a Labour Government delivers it.
SNP FAIL
While the focus this week will understandably be on the content of the Chancellor’s Budget, we also need to see the SNP government starting to take responsibility for their own financial mismanagement, incompetence, and waste.
The UK Budget has not even been announced yet, but we already know what the SNP will say. They will pretend that their hands are tied and that somehow their decisions don’t matter. But it is not just about having more money to spend; the SNP also need to get better at spending it.
Scots can see that the SNP have lost their way, are out of ideas, that their Ministers are incompetent and that they are bad with your money.
On their watch we have record long NHS waiting lists, while they waste millions on delayed discharge and expensive agencies. That they waste hundreds of millions on ferries that don’t sail, while islanders are let down and vital roads are neglected. That they have decimated local communities funding, meaning vital services being lost.
And that they use income tax as a substitute for economic growth with those earning over £29,000 paying more here in Scotland. The SNP are taking Scotland in the wrong direction. That’s why we need change here in Scotland too.
HISTORY MAKER
It was great to catch-up with Rachel Reeves last week in Downing Street. She will make history on Wednesday in being the first woman ever to deliver a Budget as Chancellor. It will also be the first Labour Budget in 14 years!