On Wednesday, Chancellor John Healey delivered the 2026 Budget.
Richard Fuller MP, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury recorded this reaction video and commented:
We needed a Budget that confronted the serious issues facing our country. We didn’t get one. This was a Budget that kicked the can down the road.
The Chancellor chose not to cut the spiralling welfare bill. Non-pensioner welfare spending will rise by £60 under Labour’s plan between 2024-5 and 2031-2, with the welfare cap breached.
He chose not to take serious, lasting measures to reduce the tax burden on hardworking families and businesses. His decisions have added £75.1 billion to the tax burden in 2029-30 and taxes will reach their highest level in our country's history. Real Household Disposable Income will fall by 0.6 per cent in 2026, Labour's key measure of economic success and the unemployment forecast has increased in every year, peaking at 5.1 per cent in 2027.
And he chose not to give our Armed Forces the funding that just months ago he said was essential.
Our public finances face a cliff edge. The interest on Government debt will be £14 billion higher than forecast just six months ago and debt interest is up in every year of the forecast rising to £160 billion by 2031-2. It will be more than the entire education budget. This is not sustainable, and nor is it fair on the hardworking people paying the price for it now, or the future generations that will be forced to pay off the debt.
The Conservative Party is different: only we have a plan to change things and a strong, united team to deliver it. We will back those who work hard and do the right thing by taking the tough decisions needed to get welfare under control. We will cut the welfare bill by £36 billion, introduce our Get to Work Programme to offer support to young people leaving school and halve the Jobs Tax for young people.
That Conservative Plan includes:
- Saving over £70 billion with our Plan for Savings, including cutting the benefits bill by £36 billion.
- Being guided by Kemi's Golden Economic Rule, which means for every £1 in savings found, 50p goes to pay down debt. This will strengthen public finances for the future by cutting the deficit by £35 billion.
- Increasing defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP and establish the Britannia Shield, 20,000 extra soldiers and a £50 billion Sovereign Defence Fund funded by reinstating the two-child limit and other welfare savings.
- Protecting the family home: scrap Stamp Duty on the family home, protect the family home from Inheritance Tax and reverse Labour’s Family Homes Tax.
You can read the full plan here: https://www.conservatives.com/our-plan-for-britain
Richard's reaction following the Budget can be watched at: https://youtube.com/shorts/m8Ei_CKc47Q?feature=share
You can also watch interviews Richard recorded with BBC 3 Counties Radio https://youtu.be/Q_X4rhBmxaw Channel 4 News: https://youtu.be/1vNGri65XVM and Talk TV https://youtube.com/shorts/qHODv6-K1xY?feature=share
