‘Budget can be defining second for Keir Starmer after 14 years of Tory neglect’
This week’s budget will not just make history as the first to be delivered by a female Chancellor. It will also be a defining moment for Keir Starmer’s government.
Rachel Reeves must lay the foundations on which Parliament can fulfil the PM’s promise to change Britain for the better. That means a massive cash injection into the NHS and public services after 14 years of Tory neglect and mismanagement.
Ms Reeves will find £6.5billion from a crackdown on the well-off who shirk the duty to pay their full share. But this budget is not just about raising cash, it must also set about reforming a creaking tax system.
HMRC will get £16million to make services better for nine million small businesses – the working people who keep the nation going.
As she cannot touch the two big income and sales revenue raisers, Ms Reeves must turn to a third, namely employer National Insurance. That could raise £18billion for the NHS. And adjusting how debt is calculated will allow some much-needed extra borrowing.
Rich non-doms and parents who can afford private education will pay more. But only 100 of the 26,000 non-doms are predicted to leave, while school fees have gone up 55% in 20 years anyway without any fall in pupil numbers.
Capital gains tax is ripe for change. It is an odd system that levies up to 45% on income from wages, but only 20% on income gained from selling assets.
But we do hope Ms Reeves finds some way to mitigate the loss of winter fuel payments to 10 million pensioners.
No budget will please everyone. But short-term pain must be set against long-term gain.
Fit for a king
Princess Diana taught her sons that not everyone lives in a palace.
Just as they grew up fully aware of the problems of homelessness, Prince William now has the same conversations with his own children.
Now, for an ITV documentary, he has revisited the homeless charity his mother took him to aged 11. His mission is to end homelessness through his own Homewards initiative.
This is exactly what our future King should be doing – using his position to highlight the plight of the vulnerable and ignored.
And doing his best to help in the hope that, by the time he takes the throne, homelessness will be a blight of the past.
Step change
This time last year Amy Dowden was having chemo for breast cancer.
Now she is whirling round the Strictly dance floor after being given the all-clear.
Overcoming cancer is never a waltz in the park. But Amy is an inspiration to others.
Her greatest asset is her smile. Her greatest achievement will be the smiles she puts on the faces of countless other sufferers.
