UK Budget delivers return to Labour's left-wing values and relief for Anas Sarwar

A lot has happened since the last time Labour were in government to deliver a Budget. The first iPad came out. Siri was invented. Keir Starmer became an MP. All big things.

This sweeping expanse of time has seen several variations of the Labour party. Blue Labour. Controls on immigration. The anti-Semitism era. And now, big daddy Keir. In short, the party has had a long time to figure things out, see what policies fit, and how comfortable they can be using Tory rhetoric as a traditionally progressive party.

Having won using the language of their rivals, there had been anxiety over what this Budget might look like, with briefings about sweeping cuts to departments, and of course the barely mentioned £22 billion black hole in the public purse.

But when it came to it, going through what Rachel Reeves actually announced on Wednesday, this was a Labour Budget, even if the framing over egged the pudding. Sure, there are looming cuts to some government departments. But on the face of it, if you look at the actual policies announced, this is a left-wing fiscal plan from a party still desperately worried about seeming too left-wing.

The SNP are less convinced by Keir Starmer’s promises | PA

VAT exemption ending for private schools. A pay rise for workers. Increasing taxes on employers, trying if perhaps failing to ensure the best off pay more. The greatest increase in funding for the NHS since Covid. A windfall tax on oil and gas giants. These are not so much comradely policies as the last words you hear before someone starts blaring out Billy Bragg’s The Red Flag.

That’s to say nothing of Scotland, who has been handed the largest financial settlement since devolution, and one that Scottish Labour MPs could not be more grateful for. It had been a patchy start for Sir Keir, with a backlash over the two-child benefit cap, winter fuel allowance, and his propensity to have everything paid for by someone else, an attitude he’s adapted to funding public services. And while these issues remain, the funding for Scotland means language from the SNP around difficult choices can now be thrown back at them. If the First Minister wants to reverse a UK Government measure, build a hospital or even hire Nicola Sturgeon for a broadcast appearance, there is now funding to do so.

It’s not enough, nothing ever is, but it allows a reframing of the narrative Labour so desperately needed. The SNP’s struggle with this is already evident, Stephen Flynn stressing a need to see the detail, Shona Robison saying she’s unlikely to end the two-child benefit cap. It was a Budget that will see dancing on the streets of Glasgow Central, not that Anas Sarwar needs an excuse.

For much of the campaign and Labour’s start to power, the accusations have been how they’re just like the Tories, and while they do so sorely lack a mission statement, this Budget moves them closer to a reset.

They chose workers over the employer. Private interests will pay for our public services, not working people, whatever those are. We still don’t have a defining goal of this Labour government. But this Budget gives them something to work with.