Image: A screenshot from the broadcast of the speech
The PM primes for cost-saving measures in its first budget, as DCMS minister of state says “national coffers are depleted”
“I will be honest with you, there is a budget coming in October, and it’s going to be painful,” warned the Prime Minister in his first key speech today.
Speaking to the press, Keir Starmer began to set out the Government’s stall to address what he called a “£22bn black hole” in public finances left by the Conservatives.
He said he will ask the country to accept “short term pain for long term good”, adding “that is our focus for the rest of the year”.
Watch LIVE: Keir Starmer’s speech on fixing the foundations of our country. https://t.co/xMOpZa1uPO
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) August 27, 2024
Cultural investment was not mentioned in the speech, as Starmer said the government’s focus until 2025 would include home-building, harnessing AI, bringing rail into public ownership, improving workers rights, and its Great British Energy project.
In the speech, the PM said those with the “broadest shoulders” would meet the financial demand, and committed again to no increase in income tax, VAT, and National Insurance.
Before today’s speech, DCMS minister of state Chris Bryant took to X to make the case for inherited Conservative budgeting failures, writing yesterday: “I know from my departments how many uncosted promises the Tories made. But I’m confident we can and will make the lasting change we need, with social justice at the heart of everything. And I can’t wait for Parliament to return.”
“Yes change is going to take time. The national coffers are depleted,” he wrote.
Bryant said the Conservative leadership candidates “have adopted a very shrill tone, full of confected outrage, as if they thought we could sort out their 14 years in seven weeks.”
The first budget under Starmer’s leadership is expected to be delivered by Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves on 30 October 2024.
