Rachel Reeves Says There Is "Nothing Labour" About "Abandoning Economic Responsibility"
Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered her key note speech to Labour conference in Liverpool on Monday afternoon. (Alamy)
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Chancellor Rachel Reeves stressed economic responsibility during her speech at Labour's party conference on Tuesday, warning that there is "nothing progressive" and "nothing Labour" about accumulating debt.
“There are still people who peddle the idea that we can just abandon economic responsibility, cast off any constraints on spending," said Reeves, shortly after criticising former prime Minister Liz Truss's mini-budget.
"They’re wrong, dangerously so.
"And we need to be honest about what that choice would mean."
She added: "Because, when spending gets out of control, when market confidence is lost, that doesn’t just show up in some OBR report and some difficult headlines a few months later. It is felt immediately in the growing cost of essentials and rising interest rates."
While Reeves did not name Andy Burnham, her remarks will likely be interpreted as a criticism of the Mayor of Greater Manchester, who last week, in an interview with The New Statesman, said the government should stop being "in hock" to bond markets.
Burnham's figure is looming large over Labour's conference in Liverpool, due to speculation that the former MP could challenge Prime Minister Keir Starmer's leadership of the party.
In her conference speech, Reeves urged her party to "have faith" that things will improve after a difficult first year or so in power for Labour and a challenging economic backdrop heading into the late-November Budget.
The Chancellor said Labour would "reject austerity and support our public services" to build "a renewed economy for a renewed Britain".
"A renewed economy that supports investment, that gets inflation and borrowing down and where we build growth in every part of Britain," said Reeves.
"I will make my choices at that Budget. There will be choices to take our country forward. And whatever tests come our way, whatever comes my way, I make this commitment to you: I will take no risks with the trust placed in us by the British people".
The remarks come amid speculation that Reeves will raise taxes in the Budget next month as the rising cost of borrowing places a strain on her fiscal rules.
Speaking to the media earlier on Tuesday, she dropped a major hint that tax rises are coming, saying “the world has changed” since she pledged last year to impose no further increases.
Elsewhere, Reeves announced that Labour was committing to a library in every primary school by the next general election.
"In England, there are 1,700 primary schools that don't have a school library," she said.
"That's not right. And I will not let it stand. So I am committing here today to providing a library in every single primary school in England by the end of this parliament."
Reeves also spent a significant part of her speech criticising Reform UK, accusing party leader Nigel Farage of being "the single biggest threat" to living standards for British people.
"Remember everything that is at stake here," Reeves told the conference.
"The single greatest threat to our way of life and the living standards of working people is the agenda of Nigel Farage and the Reform party.
"Whatever falsehoods they push, whatever easy answers they peddle. However willing they are to tear communities and families apart. They are not on the side of working people."
Reeves' speech was briefly interrupted when she was heckled by a pro-Palestinian protester demanding Labour stop selling arms to Israel and end alleged RAF surveillance flights over Gaza.
Responding to the protesters as they were removed, Reeves said: "We understand your cause, and we are recognising a Palestinian state."
