Rachel Reeves guidelines out emergency Budget if Labour wins General Election
Rachel Reeves has effectively ruled out an emergency Budget in the summer if Labour wins the General Election.
The Shadow Chancellor said that, if she enters the Treasury, there will be “no additional tax rises” beyond the ones she has already set out. Ms Reeves, who has vowed not to hike national insurance or income tax, also promised never to “play fast and loose with the public finances”.
Asked whether she would hold an emergency Budget if the party wins power, she said: “The OBR [Office for Budget requires 10 weeks’ notice to provide an independent forecast ahead of a Budget and I’ve been really clear that I would not deliver a fiscal event without an OBR forecast”.
It means Labour’s first major statement on the economy if the party wins power may not come until September at the earliest.
In her first major speech of the General Election campaign, Ms Reeves, who could become the first female Chancellor in July, said she is “ready” to move into No11.
Speaking at the Rolls-Royce factory in Derby, she said: “To serve as chancellor of the exchequer would be the privilege of my life, not to luxuriate in status, not as a staging post in a career, but to serve. I know the responsibility that will come with that – I embrace it.”
She added: “As I travel around the country, I see great potential wherever I go, in dynamic great British businesses like this one, in labs and classrooms in our world-leading universities, and in the talent and the effort of working people.
“It is time to unlock that potential, to turn the page on chaos and decline, and start a new chapter for Britain. Labour is ready.”
During her speech Ms Reeves also said that Rishi Sunak’s decision to call an early General Election is proof “he doesn’t believe that his plan She added: “Five prime ministers, seven chancellors, 12 plans for growth, each delivering less than the last.
“To put it in perspective, if our economy had grown at the average rate of OECD countries these last 14 years, our economy today would be £150 billion larger, worth £5,000 for every household and providing £55 billion more investment for our public services.
“That is their record and they deserve to be judged on it. The Conservatives have failed on the economy. The plan isn’t working. And Rishi Sunak’s decision to call a snap General Election is the clearest sign of that. If he doesn’t believe that his plan is working, why should you?
“And no matter how much they tell us that Liz Truss was nothing to do with them, their every action speaks otherwise. They haven’t learned their lessons. They’re singing from the same songbook.”
