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Yesterday, the finance minister, Rachel Reeves, delivered a Labour budget. The public have been asking for Labour’s mission and principles to be more clearly articulated. Through the choices made – a shift to a fairer tax system, focusing on wealth to pay for tackling child poverty, quality public services and the cost of living – we have clearly demonstrated what we stand for.

This is why Labour MPs applauded in the Commons, and it’s why we are ready for the battles to come. And it’s why the cries from the conservative side began right away.

The Main Dividing Line in UK Government

The primary dividing line in British politics is once again on the economy. On the one side Labour, who want to change it so it benefits ordinary working people, and on the other, our political opponents, who favor the status quo and the failed doctrine of the past. We must now confront, and win, the argument.

The Tories were given 14 years to fix things and instead, by any measure, they got far more dire. Their ideological austerity and supply-side economics – tax cuts for the wealthy, cutting off investment (causing us with low productivity and wages), and neglecting to support young people post-Covid – didn’t work.

Record of Failure Under the Previous Government

Quality of life dropped by the largest margin since records began, child poverty reached record levels, NHS waiting lists in England were the highest on record, wages remained flat, a housing crisis became entrenched, young people scarred by Covid were left on the scrapheap. The history of failure goes on.

One budget alone can’t put all this right, so Labour has a long-term plan for rebuilding and for rewiring the country. And we have to go out and keep making the case for why our approach will yield benefits.

Social Security and Youth Deprivation

Under the Tories, welfare spending significantly increased. As did child poverty, because they failed to tackle the root causes: low pay, high housing costs, deep inequalities in education, health and regions. The state is forced to paying more to deal with the symptoms instead of the cure.

It’s why we are constructing more social housing than for a generation, increasing wages and new rights for workers, greatly increasing investment in infrastructure and new industries, getting waiting lists down and lowering the costs of childcare and energy as we drive for clean power.

Ending the Two-Child Benefit Cap

This is also the reason we are absolutely right to use this budget to lift the two-child benefit cap.

For almost a decade, since it was introduced, poorer families with children have suffered from a unjust social experiment that was marketed as fair for working people when it was anything but. Most of the families impacted by it have a parent in work.

It has only served to push 300,000 more children into poverty – which, in the end, costs us more, as well as being heartless and unethical.

Tangible Effects in Communities

I know from my own district – where over 5,000 children will be lifted out of poverty as a result of ending the cap – the real impact it’s had. Children wearing £1 wellies as school shoes, children going to bed hungry and cold, living in cramped, mouldy homes, parents during the holidays depending on food banks for a simple meal or small gift for their kids.

I also see the impact on schools, teachers, social workers, doctors and charities who are already stretched but have to divert time and resources to supporting children who are living with the consequences of severe deprivation.

Lasting Consequences of Child Poverty

Just a quarter of pupils from the most disadvantaged families achieve five good GCSEs, compared with nearly three in four among affluent families. This predisposes them for the challenges they face during their lives: unrealized potential, economic struggles and poor health. Children who grew up in poverty are more likely to be unemployed or poor as adults.

Confronting child poverty isn’t just a moral imperative, it is a future-oriented strategy. Poverty costs the economy far, far more than the £3bn cost of lifting the two-child cap, or expanding free school meals.

This is the reason we acted promptly in the budget, despite the very difficult economic context. Every day with this cap in place sees more than 100 extra children pushed into poverty. The effects of lifting it won’t happen overnight either, so acting early in the parliament was vital.

The cap was a symbol to 14 years of failed conservative ideology. Now it is gone.

Equitable Funding for Measures

We, as Labour, can also be explicit that these measures are being paid for in a just way – from a new gambling levy, closing tax loopholes and a new “mansion tax”.

Final Thoughts

Equity and purpose – that’s how we will win the battle of ideas. This budget is a clear statement that we gained the election as Labour, and will lead as Labour. As I consistently said during my campaign to become deputy leader, we must seize back the political platform and set the agenda more strongly about what’s truly flawed with the country and how we are repairing it. We’ve certainly done that this week.

So let’s keep hold of it and prevail in this fight about how we will rebuild Britain and address the entrenched inequalities holding us back.