Prime Ministers Office 10 Downing Street
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- Prime Minister will say governments first Budget will fix the foundations to deliver on the promise of change.
- Keir Starmer will reject austerity, chaos and decline in favour of economic stability, investment and reform.
- He will pledge better days are ahead with an economic plan that will rebuild Britain and deliver sustainable, long-term investment to put more money in peoples pockets and deliver stronger public services.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer will today (Monday 28 October) pledge that his governments first Budget will put Britain on a new path, one that chooses long-term growth to put more money in working peoples pockets and rebuild public services instead of a return to austerity.
Setting out the defining and central purpose of the governments agenda to protect working people from the dire inheritance, he will say:
It is working people who pay the price when their government fails to deliver economic stability. Theyve had enough of slow growth, stagnant living standards and crumbling public services. They know that austerity is no solution. And theyve seen the chaos when politicians let borrowing get out of control.
We choose a different path: honest, responsible, long-term decisions in the interests of working people. Its stability that means we can invest, and reform that will maximise that investment.
Stability, investment, reform. Thats how we fix the NHS, rebuild Britain and protect working peoples payslips. Delivering on the mandate of change.
The Prime Minister will say that the country faces unprecedented challenges after the last government covered up the state of the public finances and crumbling public services:
We have to be realistic about where we are as a country. This is not 1997, when the economy was decent but public services were on their knees. And its not 2010, where public services were strong, but the public finances were weak. These are unprecedented circumstances.
And thats before we even get to the long-term challenges ignored for fourteen years. An economy riddled with weakness on productivity and investment. A state that needs urgent modernisation to face down the challenge of a volatile world.
But I wont offer it as an excuse. I expect to be judged on my ability to deal with this. Politics is always a choice. Its time to choose a clear path, and embrace the harsh light of fiscal reality so we can come together behind a credible, long-term plan. Its time we ran towards the tough decisions, because ignoring them set us on the path of decline. Its time we ignored the populist chorus of easy answers were never going back to that.
Setting out his economic plan to drive growth across the country, the Prime Minister will say fixing the foundations through stability and investment brings benefits to everyone:
If people want to criticise the path we choose, thats their prerogative. But let them then spell out a different direction. If they think the state has grown too big, let them tell working people which public services they would cut. If they dont see our long-term investment in infrastructure as necessary, let them explain to working people how they would grow the economy for them.
This is an economic plan that will change the long-term trajectory on British growth for the better.
We are tackling the biggest challenges in our economy.Higher investment were dealing with it. Planning were reforming it. The labour market were getting people back to work, but also making work pay. On competition, were stripping out the needless regulation that holds back growth and private investment. And all of this built on that foundation, economic stability.
This is what fixing the foundations and delivering change means. Everyone in this country will benefit from this. Everyone can wake up on Thursday and understand that a new future is bein