Public spending will grow and there will be no austerity, says Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves

The Chancellor said spending cuts did "huge damage" to public services and the economy under the Tories.

Public spending will grow and there will be no austerity under Labour, Rachel Reeves has said. The Chancellor said spending cuts did "huge damage" to public services and the economy under the Tories.

Reeves said that the Budget - which will be announced at the end of October - "will be about protecting living standards, fixing the National Health Service, and then, crucially, about rebuilding Britain."

She added that "we can’t keep cutting investment spending". Reeves was speaking ahead of her speech at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool at noon on Monday.

The new Labour government has been criticised for making the Winter Fuel Payment means-tested. Critics have said this marks a return to austerity. Asked whether there would be cuts to public services, Reeves insisted “there will be growth in public spending”.

She told Times Radio: “There’s not going to be austerity under Labour. Not only did it do huge damage to our public services, but it also did huge damage to our economy, because it choked off the investment that is needed to grow the economy.

“Now, the commitment that I will make for this Budget is that it will be about protecting living standards, fixing the National Health Service, and then, crucially, about rebuilding Britain. Because we can’t keep cutting investment spending, which is what the previous Conservative government did, and that chokes off the private investment that is necessary to grow our economy.

“We need that infrastructure, the housing, the energy infrastructure, the digital infrastructure, the research labs. I want them here in Britain, there’s a global race on for some of the jobs and industries of the future, whether it’s in life sciences, low carbon energy or tech.”

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There were “loads of reasons to be optimistic” but “investment doesn’t come by chance”, Reeves said. We’re going to back the builders, not the blockers, and bring that investment back to Britain,” she added.

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