Rachel Reeves’s meagre providing and the one large downside with Labour’s | Politics | News | EUROtoday

“Change” was the imprecise promise Labour plastered on the aspect of its marketing campaign bus final yr. But the place was that bus headed? Nobody knew. And judging by the view at present, it hasn’t arrived anyplace significant. Ask a police commissioner, a headteacher, a small enterprise proprietor, or a carer whether or not they’ve seen this promised change. Most will reply with a weary shrug. Of course they haven’t. They by no means do.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s Spending Review is the ultimate chapter in a trilogy of financial letdowns. It leaves companies disheartened, public service customers pissed off, and taxpayers questioning the place their cash goes. It started with a Budget that slashed Winter Fuel Allowance for pensioners and hiked Employer National Insurance, strikes that concurrently harm the susceptible and dented enterprise confidence and development.

Then got here the Spring Statement, which quietly admitted the injury: decrease development, increased debt curiosity, and tighter departmental budgets.

Now, the Spending Review confirms what many feared – spending virtually flatlining after yr one, and the hunt for the subsequent spherical of tax rises has already begun.

Even within the NHS, the place spending is genuinely rising, native well being leaders inform me cuts are nonetheless inevitable. Demand is solely outpacing sources.

This is likely to be tolerable if it have been a part of a daring, long-term imaginative and prescient. But it’s not. Labour’s pitch consists of “fiscal responsibility” and being extra competent than Liz Truss. This not a excessive bar for a Government to aspire to. It isn’t daring management. it’s mere administration.

We want greater than cautious accounting. We want braveness.

That means fixing our damaged social care system. Rebuilding our buying and selling relationship with Europe to unlock development. Making the tax system truthful – so large tech, banks, and the ultra-wealthy pay their share. Without that ambition, “change” is only a mirage.

In making an attempt to please all people a bit bit, Labour has discovered itself with few vocal supporters exterior its Cabinet. We all know they inherited a large number from the Conservatives and that international battle and Trump isn’t making issues any simpler.

But governments aren’t judged solely on what they’ve survived – they’re judged on the place they’re going. And that’s the issue: Labour nonetheless hasn’t informed us.

The nation deserves a Government that confronts exhausting truths and acts boldly – not one content material to easily steer the ship whereas it slowly sinks.

Bobby Dean is the Liberal Democrat MP for Carshalton and Wallington and a member of the Treasury Select Committee