Labour’s funding to increase benefits and award hyper-generous pay packages to public sector workers more than covers the gap between what defence figures now want for national security and what Reeves is prepared to spend. When they told you politics is about choices…
The Times reports that Reeves is prepared to make room for less than £10 billion of extra defence funding over four years – against £28 billion identified by defence chiefs to fill their funding gaps. They are making cuts of £3.4 billion this year alone…
On a related note the OBR costed the removal of the two-child benefit cap at £2.3 billion in 2026-27, rising to £3 billion by 2029-30. Reeves’ handout to unproductive public sector workers on entering office totted up to £9.4 billion of additional expenditure in a single year. You can see where this is going…
Reeves is also spending £750-£800 million per year shifting energy bill costs onto general taxation in order to pretend they are coming down when in fact they have increased under Miliband. All this instead of funding wartime readiness to even the most basic level…
Speaking at his speech on how to achieve “progressive capitalism” Wes Streeting fired a dig and Andy Burnham:
“Bond markets are not bond villains and fiscal rules matter.”