The Chancellor might want people to hear the truth, but few in his party are listening
Daily Telegraph
When politicians say they intend to level with the British people you can be pretty certain they will do nothing of the kind. In his Liverpool conference speech John Healey, the Chancellor, mainly indulged in the usual misty-eyed socialist whimsy and empty sloganising often associated with such events.
However, he did have one home truth to vouchsafe to Labour delegates: we don’t have any money. He recalled how he was in the Treasury when Gordon Brown was chancellor, the economy was booming and there was cash to spend.
This is not the case now, he said. The nation’s £3tn debt is almost 100 per cent of GDP and more is spent on financing it than on defence, the Home Office and justice combined.
Mr Healey sought to hold out the prospect of “hope again” – the conference slogan – but cautioned that this would have to be achieved within the confines of fiscal discipline. Since his predecessor’s legacy is a tightening of public spending provision from this year until the next general election his financial options are limited.
Where is he to find the money for the increase in defence spending over which he resigned from Sir Keir Starmer’s government? Who is to pay for Andy Burnham’s great social care revolution? With a Budget just weeks away, few policy announcements were expected, but this was thin gruel indeed.
In truth, Mr Healey had two audiences to satisfy: Labour activists desperate to see heavier taxes on the wealthy to pay for more spending; and the markets and international investors worried that Labour under its new Prime Minister will revert to its traditional profligacy. Mr Healey said it wouldn’t; and yet his Budget is expected to include another attack on better-off taxpayers and wealth creators.
The Chancellor was right to tell Labour activists they will only get the money to spend on health and welfare if there is economic growth. Yet everything this Government has done has made life more difficult for businesses and entrepreneurs. Mr Healey talked about “reindustrialising” the country seemingly oblivious to the fact that UK energy is far more expensive than in any comparable economy and diesel prices are at record levels.
He wants more young people in work and off benefits, yet Labour has made it more expensive to hire them. Moreover, where are the welfare savings? Meanwhile, immigration controls promised by Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, are being watered down in the face of opposition from other ministers. Mr Healey might want people to hear the truth, but few in his party are listening.
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