All the signs suggest that the government will cling to a dangerous set of false choices at the budget later this month. Constrained by the debt and borrowing rules that she has imposed upon herself, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, seems to think she only has three options: take benefits from those who are unable to work; tax those who work and are already struggling to make ends meet; or ask those who don’t need to work to pay a bit more. My worry is that she will not only make the wrong choices, but fail to challenge the dangerous orthodoxies that forced her to see these as the only choices in the first place.
Labour’s political rhetoric gives the impression that working people need not worry. Its 2024 election manifesto committed the party to rebuilding the country so that it “once again serves the interests of working people”. Only a few weeks ago, the prime minister, Keir Starmer, mentioned “working people” no fewer than 17 times in his conference speech. The chancellor was just behind him, using the phrase on 16 occasions during hers.
