Starmer makes a clear political choice ahead of Budgetpublished at 12:24 Greenwich Mean Time
Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent
After Sir Keir Starmer’s speech we now know a little more
about what will be in the Budget.
The prime minister took the somewhat unusual step of
confirming rumours that the £2 cap on bus fares in many areas of England would
be scrapped, as planned under existing spending plans, and replaced by a new £3
cap.
Most of the other things we learnt from the speech were more
impressionistic than concrete, but still significant.
Starmer promised to “prevent devastating austerity” in
public spending. He pointed out that, unlike New Labour entering government
from opposition in 1997, he had never promised to stick to Conservative
spending plans. In essence what he was saying here was that yes, some taxes
would go up, but for the purpose of spending more on public services. That is a
clear political choice which is becoming clearer with every comment and
briefing in advance of the Budget.
The prime minister also maintained his rhetoric about
“working people” despite the difficulties he and other ministers have got into
producing a definition of the term.
Starmer made clear he has little time for those definitional
disputes, saying that “the working people of this country know exactly who they
are”.
If they do, the question after Wednesday’s Budget is whether
they feel the choices the prime minister has made on tax are a fair trade for
more spending on public services.
