The 2024 Labour Budget: A real left-wing budget? Or rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic
This week, history was made, or at least gently nudged, as Rachel Reeves delivered the first Labour budget since 2010, and the first ever from a woman. Labour has spent years promising that when the time came, they’d show us exactly how they’d fix this nation’s problems. So, no more fence-sitting. No more ambiguity. Now is the moment for bold, specific action.
What did we get? A budget that was less “seizing the reins of power” and more “trying not to spill tea on the sofa while shuffling to the centre of the room.”
The good news. Such as it is
Let’s start with the positives, since I am told optimism is important. There are some good things in this budget, albeit of the “sensible shoes” variety. Workers’ rights have been improved, the minimum wage increased, and the NHS has received a funding boost that will probably keep it limping along for another couple of winters. Housing also got a nod, although probably not enough to make a substantial difference.
Tax rises? Barely. The only substantial increase was on capital gains tax. It was nice to see stamp duty on second homes go up from 3% to 5%, but it’s hardly a wealth redistribution masterstroke.
Meanwhile, corporation tax remains unchanged, presumably so Keir Starmer can keep receiving freebies. Defence spending went up, because of course it did, nothing says sensible centrist government like spending more money on more weapons, while quietly walking past starving children.
A revolution in name only
So, was it all worth it? All the saying that Labour won’t do this that and the other when in power. All the triangulation and the moving to the centre? The ditching of environmental commitments? Saying they’ll keep the two child benefit cap? Was it worth dumping all the left-wing commitments in favour of a budget that can best be described as inoffensively underwhelming?
Apparently so, if you ask the New Statesman, which gushed that this budget was properly left-wing. Really? Maybe my memory has been scrambled by years of gaslighting by a media that thinks David Cameron is a progressive because he didn’t openly spit on immigrants and wanted to stay in the EU. If this budget is the new left-wing, I’m going to need a new thesaurus, because “radical” clearly doesn’t mean what it used to.
Fixing the nation’s crumbling Infrastructure?
For a country held together with duct tape and misplaced nostalgia, you might expect a bit more urgency from the new Labour government. Britain is still in the grip of social and economic crises: housing is unaffordable, inequality is grotesque, public services are falling apart and this budget does little to address any of it.
Yes, there’s more NHS funding and some increased workers’ rights, but where’s the grand vision? Where’s the bold plan to fix the social contract or rebalance the tax burden? Younger workers still shoulder the heaviest tax load, while wealthy pensioners gently applaud Labour from their second homes. The tax burden continues to favour capital over labour, ensuring that Britain remains a paradise for landlords and hedge funds, but a nightmare for anyone under 40 trying to buy a house.
The growth question
If Labour’s going to win re-election - and frankly, I’m not taking anything for granted at this point - it needs to deliver actual economic growth. Not growth that helps oligarchs add to their yacht collection. Labour needs to foster businesses that create wealth for everyone, not just a handful of hedge-funders laughing into their champagne.
This budget doesn’t even begin to do that. If there was a plan to turbocharge innovation or encourage investment in the businesses of the future, it’s hiding so well that I can’t find it.
The Starmer effect
In many ways, this budget sums up everything about Starmer’s Labour: all the buildup, all the promises, and then … a lot of hot air, leading to something deeply disappointing and almost aggressively dull.
So here we are, with Labour firmly planted in the centre, carefully avoiding upsetting anyone who might write op-eds about fiscal responsibility. Meanwhile, the problems facing the country remain stubbornly unsolved. If this is Labour’s idea of progress, we might as well invest in a good pair of walking boots, because the road ahead is looking long, bleak, and deeply uninspiring.
GBP image created by Joegoauk Goa and is used under creative commons.
