Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, has pledged to reinstate the highest rate of income tax and use the proceeds to hire more NHS personnel.
In her address to Labour’s annual conference, she compared Liz Truss and Kwarsi Kwarteng to “desperate casino gamblers.”
She told delegates, “They have lost credibility, are losing confidence, and are out of control.”
She stated, to cheers, that Labour was now the economic competence party.
The party has already declared that it will reinstate the 45p top income tax rate that Mr. Kwarteng eliminated in last week’s mini-budget.
Ms. Reeves stated that the next Labour government would invest the funds in “the largest increase of medical school places in British history, doubling the number of medical students, to ensure that the NHS has enough physicians.”
Additionally, the party would train 5,000 additional health visitors and 10,000 additional nurses and midwives annually.
Every year, the next Labour administration will quadruple the number of district nurses who qualify, train more than 5,000 new health visitors, and create an additional 10,000 nursing and midwife positions.
Earlier, Ms. Reeves accused Mr. Kwarteng of “fanning the flames” of the pound’s decline by alluding to additional “unfunded tax cuts.”
As markets reacted to the Chancellor’s mini-budget, the pound hit a record low versus the dollar in early trading.
Overnight, the pound sank by more than 4% versus the U.S. dollar, reaching its lowest level of $1.03.
On Monday morning, the value of the pound recouped some of its losses to reach $1.06.
“I believe that many people had hoped that things would calm down over the weekend, but I believe that the Chancellor fanned the flames on Sunday by suggesting that there may be an additional stimulus and unfunded tax cuts, resulting in the pound falling to an all-time low against the dollar overnight.”
Mr. Kwarteng stated on Sunday that the tax cuts announced in his so-called mini-budget “benefit individuals throughout the income spectrum” and hinted that more are forthcoming.
The proposal, which will be funded by a significant increase in government borrowing, attracted condemnation from several Conservative MPs and Labour, who said that the tax cuts would mostly benefit the wealthy.
Sir Keir told that, if elected, he would reverse the decrease to the 45% tax rate on earnings above £150,000 but maintain the 1p cut to the base rate of income tax.
In her speech at the party convention, Ms. Reeves also outlined proposals for a new National Wealth Fund that will invest an initial £8.3 billion in green initiatives.
She stated that the fund will “return” money to communities. Labour, if elected, would invest the capital in battery manufacturers and cleaner steel facilities.
According to Labour, the fund would ensure that British taxpayers benefit from firms constructed with public funds in the United Kingdom.
Ms. Reeves stated that when public funds are invested in a project, the taxpayer “would own a portion of it.”
As chancellor, she told delegates, “I want to purchase, manufacture, and sell more in the United Kingdom.”
“What you will see in your town or city if Labour is elected is a spectacle we have not witnessed frequently enough in our nation.
“Cranes rising, shovels digging, The sounds and sights of the future approaching”
Labour has also outlined ambitions to make the United Kingdom the world’s first major economy to produce all of its electricity without using fossil fuels.
Sir Keir argued that achieving carbon-free electricity production by 2030 was an ambitious but “doable” objective. The government intends to do this by 2035.
