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Yesterday, the finance minister, Rachel Reeves, delivered a Labour budget. The public have been calling for Labour’s mission and values to be more distinctly articulated. Through the decisions made – a shift to a fairer tax system, focusing on wealth to fund tackling child poverty, good public services and the living expenses – we have unequivocally set out what we stand for.

That’s why Labour MPs cheered in the Commons, and it’s why we are up for the battles to come. And it’s why the cries from the right began right away.

The Central Political Divide in British Government

The primary dividing line in British politics is yet again on the economy. On the one side Labour, who aim to reform it so it helps everyday working people, and on the other, our political opponents, who support the current system and the failed ideology of the past. We must now take on, and win, the debate.

The Tories were given 14 years to resolve things and instead, by any measure, they got much worse. Their doctrinaire austerity and trickle-down economics – tax breaks for the wealthy, cutting off investment (causing us with poor productivity and wages), and failing to support young people post-Covid – proved ineffective.

Record of Failure Under the Former Administration

Quality of life fell by the largest margin since records began, child poverty hit record levels, NHS waiting lists in England were the highest they’ve ever been, wages remained flat, a housing crisis took hold, young people scarred by Covid were abandoned. The history of failure goes on.

One budget alone can’t put all this right, so Labour has a comprehensive plan for renewal and for rewiring the country. And we have to go out and keep making the case for why our strategy will reap dividends.

Social Security and Youth Deprivation

Under the Tories, welfare spending significantly increased. As did child poverty, because they failed to tackle the root causes: low pay, high housing costs, significant inequalities in education, health and regions. The state is forced to paying more to manage the symptoms instead of the solution.

It’s why we are constructing more affordable homes than for a generation, increasing wages and new rights for workers, massively boosting investment in infrastructure and new industries, reducing waiting lists down and bringing down the costs of childcare and energy as we pursue clean power.

Ending the Two-Child Limit

It’s also why we are absolutely right to use this budget to lift the two-child benefit cap.

For eight long years, since it was introduced, low-income families with children have suffered from a cruel social experiment that was branded as fair for working people when it was anything but. Most of the families affected by it have a parent in work.

It has only served to push 300,000 more children into poverty – which, in the end, costs us more, as well as being callous and immoral.

Real Impact in Local Areas

From experience from my own district – where over 5,000 children will be raised out of poverty as a result of abolishing the cap – the real impact it’s had. Children wearing low-cost wellies as school shoes, children going to bed without food and cold, living in overcrowded, damp homes, parents during the holidays depending on food banks for a simple meal or small gift for their kids.

I also see the impact on schools, teachers, social workers, doctors and charities who are already stretched but have to divert time and resources to supporting children who are living with the results of severe deprivation.

Lasting Consequences of Youth Hardship

Just one in four pupils from the poorest families achieve five good GCSEs, compared with nearly three in four among affluent families. This sets them up for the challenges they face during their lives: unrealized potential, economic struggles and ill health. Children who were raised in poverty are more likely to be unemployed or poor as adults.

Confronting child poverty isn’t just a moral imperative, it is a long-term investment. Poverty costs the economy far, far more than the £3bn cost of lifting the two-child cap, or extending free school meals.

That’s why we acted urgently in the budget, despite the challenging economic context. Every day with this cap in place sees over a hundred additional children pushed into poverty. The benefits of lifting it will not occur overnight either, so taking early action in the parliament was vital.

The cap was a totem to 14 years of failed rightwing ideology. Now it is gone.

Equitable Funding for Measures

We, as Labour, can also be explicit that these initiatives are being paid for in a fair way – from a new gambling levy, closing tax loopholes and a new “mansion tax”.

Final Thoughts

Fairness and purpose – that’s how we will succeed in the battle of ideas. This budget is a definitive statement that we gained the election as Labour, and will govern as Labour. As I repeatedly said during my campaign to become deputy leader, we must seize back the political megaphone and set the agenda more forcefully about what’s truly flawed with the country and how we are fixing it. We’ve definitely done that this week.

So let’s keep hold of it and prevail in this struggle about how we will rebuild Britain and tackle the entrenched inequalities impeding progress.