A MEMBER of the Shadow Cabinet has admitted that Labour need to set out how they can transform the country during this week’s conference in Liverpool.
Jonathan Reynolds told GB News: “Our job as the opposition is not just to, for instance, articulate that we will do things like freeze energy prices when people are facing the bills like they are right now, but it’s to have that longer-term future plan on how we can grow the economy. We need to set out how we will deliver security and climate change resilience at the same time, and that’s why these things are so important.”
Asked if Labour plans to reverse all of the tax cuts if they were to get into power, Mr Reynolds said: “We will certainly be voting against the cut in the top rates of income tax. I think it’s pretty clear to say, by the way, if you look at the reaction to the mini-budget, it clearly wasn’t a budget designed to appeal to the British people. But of more concern for the government is the fact that the financial markets have no confidence in it either. You’ve seen the cost of borrowing rise, we’ve seen the value of sterling slowly decline. The Government themselves are going to have to react to that in the weeks or months ahead, possibly with further spending cuts to public services. I would imagine the Bank of England will have to take further action on interest rates, but everyone needs to understand that the verdict from people who are investors, and traders looking at the UK, is that they don’t think government plans are sustainable.
“I’m afraid the Chancellor and the Prime Minister have gambled with the British economy, with people’s mortgages and jobs and I’m afraid there will have to be further measures from the government even before we get a chance for Labour to come to power and fix this damage.”
Commenting on Keir Starmer’s “green superpower” plan Mr Reynolds continued: “The conference is a chance for us to set out our alternative plan to the governments. This policy is a fine example of what we think the alternative should be, to invest in clean energy, investment in skills and training and fixing the Brexit deal so it works on business rates. And why this is so exciting is what we’ve seen the damage caused to households and businesses by being so exposed to the regional and global price of gas. We’ve got to decouple ourselves from that, we’ve got fantastic natural resources in terms of what we can do on renewable energy and energy efficiency on nuclear and yes, it’s realistic to say we can take fossil fuels out of the energy mix by 2030. We can aim to no longer be exposed to these global prices and indeed be able to export energy that we make here in the UK to our neighbours, and have money coming into the country from that. That, to us, is a better long-term plan for growth, and prosperity for the country.”
Asked by GB News, if it was what people want to hear at the moment, Mr Reynolds argued: “We obviously led over the summer with that policy to freeze household energy bills and that is what people really need. They also need a longer-term plan, how are we going to stop being exposed to fossil fuel prices, its volatility, which is principally in this due to Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.
“So yes, we need that longer-term plan and to look at the assets we have in this country, onshore wind, offshore wind capacity, and our chance for using marine energy and indeed nuclear sites. We’ve got the potential here in the UK for a position which is not only more secure, not only cheaper but actually, of course, tackles the big challenge of climate change. And I think you put those three things together, it is a compelling case for a future and yes, the public really supports that based on the polling on these issues.
Acknowledging that creating 200,000 jobs comes with a housing issue, Mr Reynolds said: “No one can deny the scale of the housing market’s problems in the UK – it is extremely severe. I think personally it’s very much a land use. It’s about how to get land to the place required to build housing on. It is not my responsibility to announce the details but there will be some further details on that this week and in the weeks ahead.”
