RACHEL Reeves’s anticipated ‘hokey-cokey’ budget turned into a sleight-of-hand trick: income tax rises unexpectedly vanishing; confidential figures from the Office of Budget Responsibility suddenly appearing online.
If the Chancellor did mislead Parliament, there may be consequences. Observed from Scotland, this looks like more Westminster chaos.
(Lord) David Blunkett, Douglas Alexander’s colleague in Tony Blair’s 2005 Cabinet, defended the Budget, admitting Labour "bound themselves in" on taxation prior to the 2024 election because “we made mistakes... we didn’t realise that the people of Britain had already decided they wanted to get rid of the Conservatives”.
Labour “didn’t realise” that? In 2024, on SNP street stalls and talking to people across East Lothian, it was clear that voters were determined to use Labour to get the Tories out.
In breaking Labour’s code of silence, Blunkett reveals Starmer and Reeves (both massively unpopular) are failing to tackle two main problems: Brexit and repairing the damage of austerity, which left destructive ‘income inequality’: among the G7, Britain is second only to the US in its levels of inequality, provoking anger and undermining democracy.
In 2024, Labour won only 33.7 per cent of the vote, illustrating starkly the democratic deficit of ‘first past the post’, resulting in a non-representative parliament. This isn’t Scotland’s fault; but if our southern neighbours put Nigel Farage and his coterie into number 10, that will be Scotland’s problem.
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn analysed the budget as “Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves's last... voters were promised things would get better but under Labour they got worse – higher household bills, unemployment at a four-year high, economic growth slashed, public finances in a mess – and hard-pressed families struggling from payday to payday”.
Labour categorises the population as “working people”, “ordinary people”, “everyday people”. But these “everyday people" are suffering from Labour policies on energy. Labour promised a £300 energy bill cut – instead, we are all £200 worse off. Labour MPs voted to keep the two-child cap in place and have been pressurised into a humiliating climbdown. Labour promised to compensate WASPI women – silence in the Budget.
This Budget is not fair for the people of East Lothian – it once again fails everyday people. This column frequently refers to the people of East Lothian and of Scotland: constituents aren’t ‘ordinary’ or ‘everyday’ but diverse individuals; residents with jobs, or seeking employment, unable to work, or retired; or young, representing our future.
I believe that a more equal, fairer Scotland should be running its own affairs. If Ireland, Denmark, or Norway can do it, so can Scotland. Westminster’s broken system blocks our way.
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