LIVERPOOL – AFP: Britain’s ruling Labour Party sought on Monday to project greater optimism about the country’s economic future in the face of a backlash over proposed welfare cuts and a row over senior ministers receiving gifts.
Finance Minister Rachel Reeves, in a speech at the party conference in Liverpool, which was interrupted by interruptions, stressed the need for “tough discipline” in dealing with the economy as government debt balloons.
The first woman to hold the post said the first budget next month would pave the way for business investment that would give the country “sustainable growth”.
She pledged not to return to the austerity that had occurred under the Conservatives.
The government last week agreed significant pay rises for doctors and train drivers, but as Reeves neared the end of her speech, news broke that nurses had rejected the pay deal.
“We have to deal with the legacy of the Conservative Party and that means making tough decisions but I will not let that dilute our ambition for Britain,” Reeves told a packed chamber as she looked ahead to next month’s budget announcement.
She said her tax and spending plans would show “real ambition… a budget to rebuild Britain”.
Reeves also announced the appointment of a new anti-corruption commissioner during the Covid outbreak to try to recover billions of pounds of taxpayer money wasted on contracts during the pandemic.
While the party is trying to prevent the escalation of the dispute over “freebies”, the British economy is failing to achieve its goals, with the latest official data showing that the British government debt has reached its highest level in more than 60 years.
Meanwhile, the country’s economic growth has stalled and annual inflation has remained above the Bank of England’s target, slowing the path to interest rate cuts that are likely to boost consumer spending.
The conference was supposed to be an occasion to celebrate Labour’s landslide victory over the Conservatives last July after 14 years of rule.
But Prime Minister Keir Starmer and a number of his ministers have faced controversy in recent days over accepting expensive gifts at a time when his government is calling on Britons to accept short-term financial difficulties.
The controversy escalated after an analysis revealed that Starmer had received gifts and hospitality worth more than £100,000 ($132,000) since December 2019, more than any other MP.
It also emerged that Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner had accepted a New York apartment for a holiday.
Last Friday, it also emerged that Reeves, who angered trade unions and fellow MPs by announcing plans to scrap winter fuel payments for many pensioners, had received around £7,500 in clothes.
Reeves defended the scrapping of £300 payments to 10 million pensioners to help them heat their homes, citing what Labour described as a “£22 billion black hole” left by the Conservatives.
Proposals were made at the conference calling for the cuts to be abandoned.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham described the decision as “cruel” and urged it to be reversed.
Trade Minister Douglas Alexander admitted that narratives about freebies were “not the headlines we would have chosen” for the party’s first conference after coming to power.
The motion to cancel the cuts is scheduled to be voted on at the conference tomorrow.
“I can’t believe the first thing they did, they didn’t think it through,” labour activist Neil Mallett, 70, told AFP.
Two men were expelled from the conference after they interrupted Reeves’s speech and raised the issues of pollution and arms exports to Israel.
Menu
