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Just recently, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, delivered a Labour budget. The public have been calling for Labour’s mission and values to be more distinctly expressed. By way of the choices made – a shift to a more equitable tax system, targeting wealth to fund tackling child poverty, good 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 fights to come. And it’s why the cries from the conservative side began immediately.

The Central Dividing Line in UK Politics

The primary division in British politics is once again on the economy. On the one hand Labour, who want to reform it so it helps ordinary working people, and on the other, our political opponents, who support the status quo and the failed doctrine of the past. We must now confront, and prevail in, the argument.

The Tories were given 14 years to resolve things and in reality, by any measure, they got far more dire. Their ideological austerity and trickle-down economics – tax cuts for the wealthy, reducing investment (causing us with low productivity and wages), and neglecting to support young people after the pandemic – didn’t work.

Record of Failure Under the Previous Administration

Quality of life 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 abandoned. The record of failure goes on.

A single budget alone can’t put all this right, so Labour has a long-term plan for renewal and for rewiring the country. And we have to go out and continue making the case for why our strategy will yield benefits.

Welfare Spending and Youth Deprivation

Under the Tories, welfare spending significantly increased. As did child poverty, because they didn’t address the root causes: low pay, high housing costs, deep inequalities in education, health and regions. The state ends up paying more to deal with the symptoms instead of the cure.

That’s why we are building more affordable homes than for a generation, increasing wages and new rights for workers, massively boosting investment in infrastructure and new industries, getting waiting lists down and bringing down the costs of childcare and energy as we pursue clean power.

Removing the Two-Child Limit

This is also the reason 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 callous and unethical.

Tangible Effects in Local Areas

I know from my own constituency – 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 overcrowded, mouldy homes, parents during the holidays depending 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 redirect time and resources to supporting children who are living with the results of deep poverty.

Lasting Effects of Youth Hardship

Just one in four pupils from the most disadvantaged families achieve five good GCSEs, compared with nearly three in four among affluent 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 unemployed or poor as adults.

Addressing child poverty isn’t just a moral imperative, it is a future-oriented strategy. Poverty costs the economy significantly more than the £3bn cost of removing the two-child cap, or expanding free school meals.

That’s why we acted promptly in the budget, despite the challenging economic context. Every day with this cap in place sees over a hundred additional children pushed into poverty. The benefits of lifting it will not occur overnight either, so taking early action in the parliament was crucial.

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

Fair Funding for Policies

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

Final Thoughts

Equity and purpose – 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 megaphone and define the narrative more forcefully about what’s truly flawed with the country and how we are fixing it. We’ve definitely done that this week.

So let’s maintain it and win this fight about how we will rebuild Britain and address the deep inequalities holding us back.