We were addressed by Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. This article summarises the speech, and offers some comments.
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor of the exchequer, spoke to Congress. In her speech, She covered a number of issues, starting by highlighting the announcement last October of the increase in the national living wage and changing rules to finally permit the low Pay Commission to take into account the cost of living. It seems strange to me that’s an artefact described as the national living wage didn’t take the cost of living into account but that is probably down to the fact the Tories renamed it as a living wage in order to suppress expectations. The NLW is now £12.21 per hour (if over 21), still somewhat below what the GMB and TUC consider an appropriate rate.
She highlighted the decision to finance free school meals across the country, together with the Employment Rights Bill. She articulated the priorities of the NHS, Workers Rights and defence and compared the Labour Government’s actions versus the promises and parliamentary votes of Reform UK, who vote to privatise the NHS, against the ER Bill, and against supporting Ukraine; against the British people, and yet supporting Putin.
She noted that GDP is up, interest rates down, and real wages up. The economy is in the best shape than it has been for the last 10 years. I’d say, that they need to learn the lessons from the last Biden administration; people can’t eat statistics. These advances need to be felt in the home.
She signposted the coming financial statement and industrial policy, which would include £113bn of investment across the UK including £15bn in Transport.
This is the video clip of the speech and questions. The thumbnail is the youtube default.
She spoke of the Defence Review claiming that the defence programs (particularly the warship investment) will create many jobs and reinvigorate Barrow, Derby and the Clyde. I’d add that while the Navy investments may have a positive effect on GDP via the investment multiplier, when we look at the Airforce investments, it’s less true. I have made some notes on the SDR .
She began to wrap up by talking about the fact that security means energy security and then preannounced the approval of the Sizewall C nuclear reactor. She also spoke about the aspiration of installing small modular reactors announcing a programme with Rolls Royce. All this needs steel so she checkpointed the nationalisation and rescue of Scunthorpe steelworks.
Three questions were permitted from the floor, London asked abour disability benefit cuts, Midlands asked about energy prices and the pottery industry, and NEYH asked about equal pay. These were answered as one might expect, although for the London question, she was honest and spoke far less aggressively than I have heard other ministers speak. Sadly, its nonsense, PIP is an in-work benefit, so having a job is not an eligibility criteria; we are back to starving people back to work. The answer on equal pay, I found interesting; she focused on a series of state funded social wage programmes, modern supply side I assume but this avoids the question of equal & low pay.
This article has been back dated to about the time of occurrence.