Rachel Reeves is set to promise a Budget that will “rebuild Britain” in a speech at the Labour Party Conference that will claim that the “work of change has only just begun”.
In a notably more optimistic tone than Labour has adopted in recent weeks, the Chancellor will vow to deliver a “Britain of opportunity, fairness and enterprise” through a Budget of “real ambition”.
Speaking on stage in Liverpool, Reeves is also expected to reaffirm her commitment to prioritise growth and make the UK an attractive place to invest, after several leading City figures voiced concern about the mood music emanating from government.
Top wealth managers and tax lawyers have publicly warned that raising capital gains tax – a move Labour has repeatedly refused to rule out including in the Budget – would damage inward investment in the UK and prompt some of the country’s top wealth creators to leave.
Meanwhile last week other business leaders – including S4 Capital’s Sir Martin Sorrell and Gail’s chair Luke Johnson – have warned that attempts to make it easier for staff to work from home – expected as part of Labour’s workers’ rights overhaul – risk dampening productivity.
In an attempt to counter those accusations, Reeves is expected to say: “Stability, paired with reform, will forge the conditions for business to invest and consumers to spend with confidence. Growth is the challenge, and investment is the solution.”
Reeves is still expected to caveat her more upbeat tone with warnings about “tough decisions” in the Budget she is due to deliver on 31 October, adding that her party “must deal with the Tory legacy”.
But she will maintain that the difficult decisions, which so far have included a politically painful cut to the winter fuel allowance for pensioners, won’t be tantamount to the cuts made by the Conservative Party on entering office in 2010.
She will say: “There will be no return to austerity. Conservative austerity was a destructive choice for our public services and investment and growth too.”
Jeremy Hunt, the Shadow Chancellor, said: “The Chancellor has already damaged the UK’s international reputation by talking down her inheritance in order to score political points.
“If she believes in growth, where is the plan? People are beginning to suspect there may not be one.”
Reeves’ will deliver her speech after a bruising week for the government, in which it found itself engulfed in a sleaze scandal around political donations.
Some of the Labour Party’s most senior politicians – including Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and the Prime Minister himself – have been forced to defend taking freebie football tickets, holidays and clothes, the latter of which Labour has said it will no longer accept.