‘The Tories spent billions they did not have – we mustn’t ever forgive them’

Economic growth is the first mission of this new Labour government.

Why? Because to rebuild Britain and make every part of the country better off, we need businesses to be making profits and workers to be paid well.

Britain now needs to make up for lost time. If our economy had grown at the same rate as other major countries over the past fourteen years of Conservative government, the UK would have been £140 billion richer.

That’s why this Labour government will fix the foundations, and take the tough decisions needed to clear up the mess left behind by the last Conservative government.

Just this week independent experts confirmed that this government inherited a national debt pile at its highest level since the 1960s. We’re spending more public money on the interest owed on that debt than on many public services. This is the legacy of failure from the last government, and its failure to get the economy growing.

Worse still, statisticians have told us that the previous government borrowed £4.7 billion more from January to April this year than had been predicted.

And to top it all off, last month we uncovered a £22 billion black hole in the public finances this year alone.

The public finances have been left in a truly dire state by the reckless and irresponsible Tories. They thought it was OK to agree to billions of pounds of spending they knew they didn’t have the money to pay for, knowing the bills would land on the doormat of a Labour government to deal with. We must never forgive them.

The economy though is starting to show glimmers of positivity, as data from the first half of this year shows that it has started to grow again. This government is laser-focused to ensure that continues.

That is why we have quickly introduced changes to planning to get Britain building. We announced a new National Wealth Fund to bring investment into local areas quicker. We’ve made a deal with junior doctors to end the strikes and protect our NHS. We’re improving the pensions system to boost returns for savers.

And we’re taking the steps needed to get the public finances back under control because we will never play fast and loose with the nation’s finances like the last government did.

There will be more difficult decisions to come; these will not be easy and there are no quick wins. But now more than ever, the British people deserve a government that will do what is right to rebuild the country.

We were elected on a promise of a decade of national renewal and this begins by fixing the foundations of our economy.