Fixing the nation’s roof when the sun was shining? The Tories have broken the windows, kicked the door in and now are burning the house down - Rachel Reeves

However, what I do know is that it will paint a picture of 14 years of economic failure. The small print of the Budget will lift the lid on a Conservative Party that has broken its promises to the people of Yorkshire and left them worse off.

When George Osborne became Chancellor 14 years ago he promised that the Conservatives would fix the nation’s roof when the sun was shining. But the truth is they have broken the windows, kicked the door in and now are burning the house down.

National debt is at the highest level since the 1960s, with the amount of taxpayers’ money having to be spent servicing that debt the most it has been since the Second World War.

The tax burden is the highest it has been since 1949. There have been 25 Tory tax rises since the general election and the average family is set to be £1,200 worse off under Rishi Sunak’s tax plan. And despite the prime minister’s promise to grow the economy, it is in fact smaller now than when he first entered 10 Downing Street.

That is a record of failure and working people are having to pay the price. A failing economy means less money in family budgets, fewer people shopping on the high street and more and more businesses struggling to make ends meet.

The political party that wins the next general election – and I hope it will be the Labour Party with Keir Starmer as Prime Minister – will inherit the worst set of circumstances in a generation. I wish that wasn't the case, but it is the honest truth. Our economy is broken and our public services are on their knees, with millions stuck on hospital waiting lists and our schools lacking the investment they need.

In the days leading up to the Budget we should be having a national debate about how we can rebuild our country. I spend much of my time talking to businesses in Yorkshire and around the country, and I know how desperate they are to help turn things around. The Government should be spending its time talking to those businesses about how we can unblock investment, create well-paid jobs and bring stability back after a decade of chaos and uncertainty. Instead, the only conversations happening in the Conservative Party are about how best to protect Rishi Sunak’s leadership.

Britain and our economy need change – and next week I will be talking about the Budget a Labour government would be delivering if we were in power. At the heart of that Budget would be a serious, credible and long-term plan for growth to put more money in people’s pockets and to make them better off. It is a plan that would be built on three core pillars of change.

First, stability brought about by iron discipline, guided by strong fiscal rules, robust economic institutions, and with every policy that we announce – every line in our manifesto – fully costed and fully funded. Second, investment, through partnership with the private sector to steam ahead in the industries of the future, with a modern industrial strategy and a new National Wealth Fund to invest alongside business, in our automotive sector, in our ports, and in the future of our steel industry. And third, reform by fixing our outdated planning system so we can get Britain building the homes and infrastructure we need.

Stability, investment, reform. Those are the foundations of a plan to break free of the Conservatives’ vicious cycle of stagnant economic growth, rising taxes, and falling living standards. But it is also a long-term plan to grow our economy so we can protect the future of our public services.

I know our public services need more investment and that is why the next Labour government will put an immediate injection of cash into our schools and hospitals paid for by abolishing the non-dom status and ending the tax loophole for private schools. However, in the long-term the only way we can build stronger public services is by rebuilding a stronger economy – and that is what a Labour government would do.

I have been Shadow Chancellor for nearly three years and I am under no illusion about the scale of the challenge facing our economy. There are no short-cuts, no quick fixes, no easy answers to how we rebuild, and it will mean hard choices ahead.

The Labour Party will fight the next election on the economy and we will spend every day of the campaign exposing what the Conservatives have done, because the questions people in Yorkshire will ask ahead of the next election are simple: do you and your family feel better off after 14 years of Conservative government?

Rachel Reeves is Labour’s Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer.