That was authentic anger, Rachel Reeves’s indignation well justified as she thundered in the Commons at the inheritance she has been left. Labour is genuinely outraged at the destruction the former chancellor Jeremy Hunt deliberately inflicted, knowing his party would be out of there for years to come. They did indeed “put party before country”, as she said, by cutting tax without having the funds to pay for their promises. The Treasury’s audit shows her victorious battlefield strewn with landmines: unfeasible commitments for Boris Johnson’s fantasy 40 new hospitals, roads without budgets, every public service burned out and councils everywhere tipping into bankruptcy. This was not mere fecklessness but deliberate sabotage, an act of treason against the country.
That Tory wreckage will stay vividly imprinted in the public memory. All that matters now is how to find the resources to breathe renewal and growth into the national decay all around us. The depth of the dishonesty in this year’s budget meant she made tough cuts in-year: the winter fuel allowance made no sense for pensioners not on benefits. Social care charging caps, endlessly delayed, will not go ahead: the idea needs to be wrapped up in a better future reform. She will pay all public employees the raise they deserve, though this is still behind the private sector. Cutting £3.2bn shared between every cabinet minister’s budget looks too harsh after the starvation years: what “efficiency” savings could there be?
