Enrique Rubio
Liverpool (United Kingdom), October 9 (EFE).- The economic chief of the Labor Party – and future British economy minister if opinion polls are to be believed – Rachel Reeves, on Monday presented a plan that would bring her formation closer to politics. A center that considers financial discipline and growth as its pillars.
Speaking at the party conference, which runs until Wednesday in Liverpool, Reeves said that a Labor Party in power would seek to expand the economy by building housing and infrastructure and creating a new sovereign wealth fund for public investment.
“A Labor government will not cower in the face of fiscal rules or play the Conservative game to undermine our economic institutions,” he said, referring to the chaos caused by Conservative Prime Minister Liz Truss a year ago when she announced a huge tax. Cutting that is not funded.
For this reason, one of the measures Reeves introduced was to introduce a fiscal mechanism that would require by law any government to undergo an assessment by the Office for Budget Responsibility if it wanted to make “permanent and significant” changes to taxation and spending. .
He added, “Economic responsibility does not conflict with the progress achieved by workers… Workers will tax fairly and spend wisely. But taxes and spending do not lead to growth: the lifeblood of the economy is investment in business.”
Reeves, a former central bank economist, has led Labor’s transition from the clearly left-wing platform on which its former leader Jeremy Corbyn ran in the 2019 election to the economic doctrine the party now offers.
The renationalization and public spending promises made four years ago are gone; The Labor Party is reinventing the “third way” that Tony Blair won a quarter of a century ago, and seeking not to scare away moderate voters.
His critics argue that this desire not to intimidate anyone in particular means that promises are not detailed or lack ambition.
In today’s speech, Reeves offered some guidelines for what the final government’s economic policy could be for Labor leader Keir Starmer, whom opinion polls today leave more than 20 points behind the Conservatives.
Among other measures, Labor intends to abolish tax relief for “non-resident” residents (which allows some foreign residents to pay tax only on income generated in the UK) and force private schools to pay VAT. ), the money with which the public health system (NHS) and public education will be funded.
They will also launch an attack against fraud and waste of public money through three axes: ending the use of private planes by members of the government, cutting government spending on consultations by half and creating a commissioner to recover funds embezzled during the pandemic.
He also supports “cutting taxes on workers”, although he has not made any specific commitment in this regard.
In a nod to the left, he promised a “minimum wage that takes into account the cost of living” and the abolition of so-called “zero hours contracts,” which exempt the employer from providing a minimum number of working hours to workers. Factor.
But if there is one thing Reeves has stressed, it is that Labor is “ready to build the UK back”.
To do this, they will launch a “generational” reform of urban planning systems and streamline the construction of onshore wind farms, which are often blocked due to disapproval from rural England residents.
“Labour is the party of economic growth, home ownership and construction,” Reeves summed up to applause from his party’s leadership and a dedicated audience.
As a cherry on top of its intervention, the party showed a video in which former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney – appointed by the Conservatives to the position – expressed his support for Reeves as future economy minister. Evie
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