Britain’s finance minister calls for spending discipline but no return to austerity

Liverpool, ENGLAND — U.K. Finance Minister Rachel Reeves vowed on Monday that Britain will not return to austerity, saying her budget proposals will look to rebuild the country.

“It will be a budget with real ambition … a budget to deliver the change we promised. A budget to rebuild Britain,” she told a crowd of Labour party delegates Monday. “There will be no return to austerity.”

Her speech, briefly interrupted by heckles from a protester in the crowd, came as Labour kicked off its annual party conference on Monday — its first in power for 15 years.

The ruling Labour government has faced criticism for generating an atmosphere of doom over the state of the public finances, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer warning of “painful” decisions after the party rallied to victory in the July general election.

Reeves has suggested that taxes are likely to rise at her upcoming Oct. 30 Autumn budget after discovering a £22 billion ($29 billion) “black hole” in the public finances. Her predecessor Jeremy Hunt, from the rival Conservative Party, has denied the claims as “fictitious.”

Reeves has already ruled out rises to income tax, the National Insurance social security payments, value-added tax (a sales levy) and corporation tax.

However, the government has announced that millions of pensioners will no longer receive home heating payments in the winter, a decision that Labour supporters have criticized.

Half of Britons, including a quarter of Labour voters (26%), are disappointed with the government’s achievements so far, Ipsos opinion polling showed Friday. Gideon Skinner, Ipsos’ senior director of U.K. politics, said the findings were an indication that the government’s “honeymoon period” was over.

“There’s a seeping back of pessimism and concern following a few months of hope after the election,” Skinner said earlier Monday at the Labour party conference.

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