UK Budget: Here's what the country needs to hear from Chancellor Rachel Reeves

Labour’s dire warnings about the economy have left national morale on life support

It’s been a long wait but finally the Labour party is to reveal their economic plan to move us on from the financial quagmire of the past decade. When Rachel Reeves stands up on Wednesday to present the first Budget by a female Chancellor of the Exchequer, we need her to lift the veil of misery that has cloaked every Labour announcement since their election victory.

Instead of July 4 marking the start of a new, more hopeful era for the country, it has so far failed to live up to our expectation of change. Instead of marking the start of a journey towards a brighter future, it feels as if we’re following the same old road to nowhere.

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In the little more than 100 days of Labour in power, we have endured so many warnings of dire consequences and black holes in finances left by the Conservatives that national morale is on life support. To Rachel Reeves falls the task this week of turning that around.

Last week, less than four months from when they won, Labour’s approval rating stood at minus 40. It’s hardly a ringing endorsement. None of us were, I believe, naïve about the scale of the task they faced, but their rating indicates that perhaps we are beginning to doubt if they’re up to it.

There was a brief moment of energy when Angela Rayner was her best, most mischievous self at the despatch box for Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions. Trading humorous barbs with opposite number Oliver Dowden, she offered the possibility that Labour might have some character to them after all.

While we need some of that dynamism from Rachel Reeves this week, we also need some hope. Some evidence of a plan.

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Certainly the news at the tail end of last week that the Chancellor is to change debt rules to release billions of pounds of borrowed money could change things. It needs to be invested wisely. It needs to help boost growth in a stagnant economy and invest in replacing and enhancing our beleaguered public services.

Rachel Reeves, seen with Keir Starmer, needs to try to lift the public mood in her Budget on Wednesday (Picture: Oli Scarff)Rachel Reeves, seen with Keir Starmer, needs to try to lift the public mood in her Budget on Wednesday (Picture: Oli Scarff)
Rachel Reeves, seen with Keir Starmer, needs to try to lift the public mood in her Budget on Wednesday (Picture: Oli Scarff) | AFP via Getty Images

Our hospitals are crumbling. In Edinburgh, people receiving treatment at the city’s Eye Pavilion fear their sight may be lost as the health service struggles to cope with its enforced closure for repairs.

Frontline staff are coping with conditions neither they nor patients should have to endure, GP practices are struggling, and NHS dental appointments are hard to come by in some parts.

In Scotland we have the additional problem that even if the Chancellor does announce much-needed funding for hospitals, schools or our other public services, we are dependent on the SNP government to pass on the consequential funding increase.

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Too often we have seen funding from the UK Government that should have been earmarked for public services disappear into the black hole that is SNP financial management.

If the Chancellor borrows money next week to invest in public services, we need to make sure that any benefits passed on to Scotland are felt here.

I am under no illusion of the difficulty of the task facing the Labour party. I believe that things can get better. Both the Chancellor and the Prime Minister must convince us that they believe that too.

Christine Jardine is the Scottish Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West

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