‘A budget built on fairness – and taking the fight to economic crime’

This is a budget which delivers for working people up and down the country and has fairness at its core. With lower energy bills to help tackle the cost of living, 450,000 children lifted out of poverty, more cash for the NHS, and a significant investment into school libraries and playgrounds, Labour’s values run deep through the Chancellor’s speech.

After 2022’s disastrous Liz Truss budget cast a long shadow over our public finances, Rachel Reeves’ measures today serve as a timely reminder of what fiscal discipline actually looks like.

Inflation down, growth front and centre, and plenty of headroom built in – all welcome.

And the Chancellor has rightly stared down the sloganeers – from both the populist right and left – pushing for dishonest responses to the public finances.

On the populist right – trickle down economics and austerity that just haven’t worked. Which is why I’m pleased to see the Chancellor building on last year’s pledges to scrap non-dom tax status, increase capital gains tax and fuel duty for private jets – by introducing a new High Value Council Tax Surcharge on houses worth over £2 million. That’s a progressive measure which will ensure those with the broadest shoulders genuinely do bear the greatest burden.

And on the populist left, the Chancellor has rightly ignored the Green’s siren calls for a wealth tax on assets over £10m. It just doesn’t have the evidence base to support it.

Elsewhere, it’s a pleasure to see the Chancellor adopting long-needed measures to tackle organised crime gangs blighting our high streets.

That includes giving HMRC the resources it needs if we are to reduce the £40 billion tax gap – the difference between what should be paid into the exchequer and what actually is received.

Just think how many schools, buses and hospital appointments that could fund.

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Illicit finance in the UK tarnishes each and every one of our high streets. Of the estimated £12 billion of criminal cash generated every day, much of it flows through high street fronts such as vape shops, candy stores, barbers and off-licences. From visiting 2,734 premises, including some in my own Bolton West constituency, the recent raids coordinated by the National Crime Agency seized £10m in criminal assets alongside 924 arrests. However, there remains much more work to be done.

These shops not only harm legitimate traders, driving unfair competition, depressing local growth and contributing to high street decline. Moreover, they facilitate organised crime, modern slavery, drug trafficking and exploitation. Communities feel the impact even if they cannot always identify the source.

So, as Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Anti-Corruption & Responsible Tax, I particularly welcome the Chancellor’s new measures to crack down on unscrupulous front businesses which launder cash for criminal gangs, evade tax or simply sell fake goods.

If effectively implemented, the Chancellor’s new cross government taskforce, funded by an increase in the Economic Crime Levy, will significantly reduce the ability of criminals to hide illicit funds in plain sight, restore confidence in the financial system. Equally importantly, they’ll stop the UK from being an easy target for dirty money. But – as the Chancellor recognises – effective implementation requires proper resourcing, strengthened inter-agency coordination and maintained political pressure.

That’s why I will continue to press for a ringfenced, multi-year ‘Economic Crime Fighting Fund’, which would recycle cash seized from criminals back into law enforcement agencies, creating a ‘virtuous cycle’ of enforcement. Such a fund would give agencies like HMRC the financial backing they need to deliver what the Chancellor has now asked them to do.

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