Great Northern Conference: Rachel Reeves stands by claim Labour Government is 'most pro-business ever'

Speaking at The Yorkshire Post’s Great Northern Conference in Hull yesterday, she told business and policy leaders that this was a "once in a Parliament" Budget to deal with the Government’s fiscal inheritance.

The Leeds West and Pudsey MP said she was willing to be “unpopular “if it meant making “tough decisions” to stabilise the economy.

"I'm not going to try and pretend that it's going to be easy for businesses, or indeed, charities and local authorities to absorb the National Insurance increases,” Ms Reeves said.

“But we made a commitment during the general election for a reason, that we wouldn't increase taxes on working people, because over the last few years, it has been working people that have had to bear the brunt of tax increases.”

The Chancellor told the Yorkshire Post that she stood by her comments from April, that the Labour administration was going to be the “pro-business government this country has ever seen”.

“The foundation upon which any plan for growth and business can be built is on the foundation of stability,” she said.

“If I hadn't made those difficult decisions, a sense of instability would have continued and that is a disaster for securing investment in the UK economy.

“The last Government lost control of public finances, I'm not going to be a Chancellor like that.

“I'm going to take the tough decisions now and then we can move on with more certainty for the future,” Ms Reeves said.

Ms Reeves however declined to repeat her promise not to raise taxes further after this year’s Budget.

She said: “I can’t write five years’ worth of budgets in just five months … but I can give businesses the confidence in this budget - we have wiped the slate clean, we will never have to do a budget like this again.”

The Leeds West and Pudsey MP explained that she had “done what it takes to get a grip of those public finances so that I won’t have to come back in the spring or next autumn to say, ‘well, actually I need to come back for a bit more because I didn’t do the full work last year'”.

Looking out at northern businesses across the room, she said: “You can have confidence I have done that.

“Public services are going to have to live within the envelope that we set in phase one of the spending review.

“That’s going to mean difficult decisions come the spring on public spending, but public services do now need to live within their means, because I’m not going to come back with another load of tax rises or indeed higher borrowing to fund this.”

Ms Reeves said she was “proud” to be the first Chancellor to address The Yorkshire Post’s Great Northern Conference, and was bullish about the Government’s record in the North.

She said: “When you look at some of the early announcements that we've made as a government, whether that is establishing the National Wealth Fund, which will unlock £40 billion of private investment and headquartering that National Wealth Fund in Leeds, we get to work with local leaders and mayors to unlock local growth opportunities.

“That's why we announced funding for carbon capture and storage in Teesside and Merseyside. We're really pleased with the announcement by Scottish Power to invest in the energy sector here in Hull.

“So when we make those announcements about investments, yes, of course, we want to get bang for our buck, but we are also looking at how we can make sure government investment crams in private investment in different parts of the country to unlock the potential that exists everywhere.”