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Just recently, the finance minister, Rachel Reeves, delivered a Labour Party budget. People have been calling for Labour’s mission and values to be more clearly expressed. Through the choices made – a shift to a more equitable tax system, targeting wealth to pay for tackling child poverty, good public services and the cost of living – we have unequivocally set out what we stand for.

That’s why Labour MPs applauded in the Commons, and it’s why we are ready for the fights to come. And it’s why the cries from the right began right away.

The Central Political Divide in British Government

The central dividing line in British politics is once again on the economy. On the one side Labour, who aim to reform it so it benefits everyday working people, and on the other, our opponents, who favor the current system and the failed doctrine of the past. We must now confront, and win, the debate.

The Tories were given 14 years to resolve things and instead, by any measure, they got much worse. Their doctrinaire austerity and supply-side economics – tax cuts for the wealthy, cutting off investment (causing us with poor productivity and wages), and failing to support young people after the pandemic – didn’t work.

Record of Failure Under the Former Administration

Living standards dropped by the biggest amount since records began, child poverty hit record levels, NHS waiting lists in England were the highest on record, wages remained flat, a housing crisis became entrenched, young people affected by Covid were left on the scrapheap. The record of failure goes on.

One budget alone can’t fix everything, so Labour has a comprehensive plan for rebuilding and for restructuring the country. And we have to go out and keep making the argument for why our approach will reap dividends.

Social Security and Child Poverty

Under the Tories, welfare spending significantly increased. 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 is forced to paying more to deal with the effects instead of the solution.

That’s why we are building more social housing than for a generation, increasing wages and new rights 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.

Ending the Two-Child Benefit Cap

It’s also why we are completely justified to use this budget to lift the two-child benefit cap.

For eight long years, since it was introduced, low-income families with children have suffered from a unjust social experiment that was marketed as fair for working people when it was anything but. Most of the families affected by it have a parent in work.

It’s done nothing but push 300,000 more children into poverty – which, in the end, costs us more, as well as being heartless and unethical.

Real Impact in Communities

I know from my own district – where over 5,000 children will be raised out of poverty as a result of abolishing the cap – the actual 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 this Christmas relying on food banks for a modest meal or small gift for their kids.

I also see the impact on schools, teachers, social workers, doctors and charities who are already overburdened but have to divert time and resources to supporting children who are living with the results of deep poverty.

Long-Term Consequences of Youth Hardship

Just one in four pupils from the most disadvantaged families achieve five good GCSEs, compared with nearly three in four among wealthier families. This sets them up for the challenges they face throughout their lives: unrealized potential, financial struggles and poor health. Children who were raised 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 far, far more than the three billion pound cost of removing the two-child cap, or expanding free school meals.

That’s why we acted urgently in the budget, despite the very difficult economic context. Every day with this cap in place sees more than 100 additional children pushed into poverty. The effects of lifting it will not occur overnight either, so acting early in the parliament was crucial.

The cap was a symbol to 14 years of failed rightwing ideology. Now it is abolished.

Equitable Financing for Measures

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

Final Thoughts

Fairness and direction – that’s how we will win the battle of ideas. This budget is a clear statement that we won the election as Labour, and will lead as Labour. As I consistently said during my campaign to become deputy leader, we must reclaim the political platform and set the agenda more forcefully about what’s truly flawed with the country and how we are repairing it. We’ve certainly done that this week.

So let’s maintain it and win this struggle about how we will rebuild Britain and address the entrenched inequalities impeding progress.