Britain is broken and few believe Labour's Budget will fix it

It is welcome that the argument for increased public investment has been won and it is welcome that the Chancellor has listened to the voices across Scotland who have forcefully made that case. Increased spending in the NHS and increased infrastructure investment are long overdue but no less welcome for it. Never again can our public services be starved of the investment they need to survive.

For many in Scotland though, warm and welcome words will end there. And there’s a very simple reason why. The Chancellor repeatedly said the Budget was about “fixing the foundations”, but the problem for much of the public is that Rachel Reeves has proven Labour’s election promises were built on foundations of sand.

Budget will hit wages and businesses

In the summer, Scotland was promised “change” – and although I’ve freely acknowledged that the new investments in the public sphere are welcome – the Budget still cuts winter fuel payments to 900,000 of our pensioners, imposes a massive jobs tax on community businesses and local charities, hammers the Scottish whisky industry, and keeps the poverty-producing two-child cap.

The danger of this Budget is that it will hit working people’s wages and the businesses who employ them – at the very moment they thought they were getting a break with inflation finally easing.

The Chancellor only has herself to blame for that reality. The Labour party’s election slogan of “change” was so simple and so effective that they all happily hid behind it. But simple slogans rarely survive the hard reality of government.

And for pensioners, for children living in poverty, for employers and workers in small businesses, Labour have broken their promise of “change”. Because whether politicians like it or not, these are the people who define what Westminster austerity is, because these are the people who bear the brunt of it.

Brexit the biggest economic black hole

We all know and understand that the Tories left Labour a mess but it was Keir Starmer’s failure to be fully honest about his plans that is now causing real anger. Labour weren’t honest with pensioners about winter fuel cuts and weren’t honest with small businesses about a massive tax hike that will hit them and their workers. And they weren’t even honest during the election, for fear of Tory attack, about one of the welcome steps in this Budget, the change to fiscal rules to unlock investment.

Worst of all though, they have never been honest about the fact that Brexit remains the biggest black hole in the UK economy. One of the most worrying aspects of the Budget is that UK economic growth is set to start stalling and falling again in 2026. It seems that no matter the Westminster Chancellor in charge – broken, Brexit Britain is destined to hold back growth in Scotland and hold back our path to prosperity.

That is the deeper and defining reality when it comes to Westminster Budgets and the UK economy. Britain is broken and few believe this Budget will fix it – so any fair criticism and fair analysis will surely keep asking if Westminster is ever capable of delivering the real change Scotland needs.

Stephen Flynn MP is SNP Westminster leader