Rachel Reeves has declared she is ready to become Britain’s first female chancellor as she set out Labour’s stall as the party of business.
With five weeks until the 4 July general election, the shadow chancellor promised to “turn the page on chaos and decline” and “start a new chapter for Britain”.
In a major speech at a Rolls-Royce site in Derby, Ms Reeves said serving as chancellor would be the privilege of her life and would require hard work and hard choices.
But she said she is ready, promising to “lead the most pro-growth, the most pro-business Treasury that our country has ever seen, with a laser focus on delivering for working people”.
Flanked by business leaders who have backed Labour in the upcoming election, Ms Reeves reiterated Labour’s five missions for “a decade of national renewal”.
She detailed plans for 40,000 new appointments every single week, a Border Security Command to “smash the criminal gangs and strengthen our borders”, a publicly owned Great British Energy company, an antisocial behaviour crackdown and plans for 6,500 new teachers.
Ms Reeves said: “To serve as chancellor of the exchequer would be the privilege of my life, not to luxuriate in status, not as a staging post in a career, but to serve.
“I know the responsibility that will come with that – I embrace it.”
Her speech came as:
- Rishi Sunak said “as sure as night follows day” Labour would put up taxes.
- Nigel Farage repeated calls for Rishi Sunak to debate him on immigration.
- Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey outlined plans for environmental experts to be represented on water company boards to ensure sewage spills are taken seriously.
- A top economist said Mr Sunak’s proposed tax break for pensioners is “simply a reversal of a tax increase that the Conservatives proposed”.
Speaking after 121 business leaders backed Labour as the “party of change” ahead of the election, Ms Reeves said Labour’s plans for government do not require any further tax rises.
She set out her ambition to cut income tax and national insurance contributions for workers, but said she would not announce tax cuts without clear funding.
Drawing a contrast between Labour and the Conservatives, she promised to “never play fast and loose with the public finances”.
And she accused Mr Sunak and chancellor Jeremy Hunt of “singing from the same songbook”, painting the party’s promise to abolish national insurance as a £46bn unfunded tax cut. Overnight, 121 founders, executives and investors from a range of sectors backed Labour and attacked 14 years of “instability, stagnation, and a lack of long-term focus” under the Conservatives.
In a letter published in The Times, they called for Labour to be given the chance “to change the country and lead Britain into the future”.
Welcoming the flood of business leaders backing her party, Ms Reeves said she is “not one of those politicians that thinks that the private sector is a dirty word, or a necessary evil”.
She added: “A few years ago, you might not have expected to have heard these things from the Labour Party. Think how far we’ve come under Keir’s leadership in four short years.
“If we can change this party to bring it back in the service of working people, if we can return it to the centre ground of politics, if we can bring business back to Labour, then I know that we can bring business back to Britain.
“To bring investment back to Britain, to bring growth back to Britain, to bring hope back to Britain.”
She declined to follow Sir Keir in describing herself as a socialist, instead saying she thinks of herself as a social democrat. And Ms Reeves ruled out a snap budget this summer if Labour wins, promising instead to give the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) time to produce forecasts.
Her speech came as Mr Sunak addressed a campaign event in Stoke-on-Trent, warning staff that “as clear as night follows day… Labour are going to run out of money and put up your taxes”.
The prime minister was selling workers on his “triple lock plus” pledge to boost pensioners’ incomes and his plan to enforce national service for 18-year-olds.
But he suffered a blow as Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said the proposed tax break for pensioners is “simply a reversal of a tax increase that the Conservatives proposed”.
Mr Johnson told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ”Pensioners used to have a bigger personal allowance than people of working age – it was the Conservatives who got rid of it.
“So this is one of many examples actually of tax policy that has been reversed by the same government.
“Secondly, it’s worth saying that in part, looking forward, this is simply a reversal of a tax increase that the Conservatives proposed. The idea is that the allowance doesn’t rise at all in line with inflation for the next three years. So half of the cost of this is simply not imposing the tax increase that was previously proposed.”
