Keir Starmer has warned that his government’s financial legacy will not be “easy to repair”.
London:
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned Tuesday that his new government’s first budget in just two months would be “painful”, urging the country to “accept short-term pain for long-term good”.
Starmer, whose Labour Party won a landslide parliamentary majority on July 4, used his first major speech since then to lay the groundwork for the much-anticipated financial event on October 30.
He also used the address, from Downing Street Gardens, to attack the ousted Conservatives, claiming they had left a £22 billion ($29 billion) “black hole” in the public finances.
“There will be a Budget in October and it will be painful,” Starmer said.
“Those with broad shoulders will have to bear the heavy burden,” he added, hinting at tax increases for some after October 30.
The Labour Party has pledged not to raise taxes on “workers”, rejecting increases in income tax, other types of social security and value-added tax.
But there is growing speculation that other taxes, such as capital gains, could be the target.
Starmer stressed that the UK must look beyond fiscal adjustments and that growing the economy remains its “first task”.
But he warned that his government’s financial legacy would not be “easy to repair”.
“We have to make tough decisions, I have not filled the £22 billion black hole,” he added.
Political opponents say the government had been aware of the country’s dire financial situation for months and was paving the way for the unpopular announcement.
Labour insists the Conservatives misled the public and others, including the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
The Independent Financial Conduct Authority said it was investigating the government’s latest spending forecasts in light of Labour’s black hole allegations.
In his speech, Starmer also addressed the recent anti-immigration riots sparked by the deadly knife attack in Southport.
Officials blamed far-right elements for helping to fuel the unrest, which targeted mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers, as well as police officers and other property.
In an attempt to link the problems to the Conservative legacy, the UK leader said they “did not happen in a vacuum” and “exposed the state of our country”.
“It has revealed a deeply unhealthy society… weakened by a decade of division and decay, and hit by the vortex of populism that has ended the cycle of recent government failure.”
“Every time they faced a difficult problem, they were not honest, they offered the deception of populism, which led to more failures,” Starmer said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and appears on a syndicated channel.)
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