Britain’s governing Labour party sought Monday to strike a more upbeat note about the country’s economic future against a backlash at proposed cuts to welfare payments and a row over top ministers receiving gifts.
In a keynote speech to the centre-left party’s annual conference in Liverpool, which was often interrupted by hecklers, finance minister Rachel Reeves insisted on a need for “iron discipline” on the economy amid ballooning state debt.
Reeves, the first woman named Britain’s chancellor of the Exchequer, said her first budget next month would open the way for business investment that would provide the country with “lasting growth”.
She reiterated Labour’s pre-election pledge that workers would not face tax increases on their salaries, while paving the way for other tax hikes, according to analysts.
Reeves also pledged “no return to austerity” as seen under Conservative rule, a mantra repeated by several Labour figures as the party held its first annual gathering in power since 2009.
Casting a shadow over the conference was a row about gifts that dominated the buildup and continued fallout over the controversial axing of a fuel benefit for millions of pensioners, which has triggered anger from unions.
The government also suffered a blow near the end of Reeves’s speech as news came through that nurses had rejected the government’s latest pay deal.
The announcement came after the government agreed last week on pay rises for doctors and train drivers.
“We must deal with the Tory legacy, and that means tough decisions, but I won’t let that dim our ambition for Britain,” Reeves told a packed hall.
She said the tax and spending plans to be announced in her budget plan next month would show “real ambition… a budget to rebuild Britain”.
