JAM tomorrow at the very earliest was Labour ministers’ pre-Budget pledge as the government struggles to move on from its misery messaging.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves warned that Wednesday’s long-awaited Budget will not be enough to restore the NHS to health.
Her gloomy outlook was echoed by Health Secretary Wes Streeting as the Cabinet’s two leading Blairites competed to dampen expectations of any early turn-around in the national malaise.
“I can’t promise that there won’t be people waiting on trolleys and corridors this winter,” Mr Streeting warned. “There are people in that position already today.”
And Ms Reeves said that her much-trailed package of measures will major on “difficult decisions on spending, on welfare and taxation.”
Attempting to discern light at the end of the tunnel, the Chancellor added: “We will be known as the government that took the NHS from its worst crisis in its history, got it back on its feet again and made it fit for the bright future ahead of it.
“I don’t think in one Budget you can undo 14 years of damage, but we’re going to provide the resource necessary to deliver on our manifesto commitment to 40,000 additional appointments every week, as well as increase the capital budget to take it to its highest level since 2010 to invest in the new scanners and radiography equipment.”
Mr Streeting, on a joint visit with Ms Reeves to a south London hospital which must have done nothing to aid anyone’s recovery, was having none of it, however.
He said that whatever extra cash the Budget offers for the NHS — and it is anticipated that there will be some — it would not prevent avoidable deaths and another winter crisis.
Sticking closely to the Blair-era playbook, the Health Secretary warned of more reforms, usually code for greater private-sector involvement in the NHS.
“We are linking that investment to reform, because everything I said in opposition about waste and inefficiency in the NHS, the need to improve productivity — and we can’t keep on pouring more money in without reform — all of those things stand.”
And Ms Reeves stuck to her usual script too, rushing from the hospital to the Commons to blame the Tories for everything, while pledging a “partnership with business” and “borrowing to invest.”
None of this is calming jittery nerves among Labour MPs who, conscious of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s abysmal start, desperately need the Budget to relaunch the government and give it a sense of positive purpose.
The Budget has been preceded by a blizzard of leaks, prompting Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle to remonstrate with ministers for not following parliamentary propriety by telling MPs the news, good and bad, first.
Mr Streeting however defended the leaking, saying it was necessary to avoid giving the money markets any sudden shocks with unexpected announcements.
The latest speculation includes the suggestion of a major boost to the minimum wage, something with a limited impact on the state of public finances.
The Budget is certain to include a range of tax increases; a squeeze on current government spending, including on welfare; and fiddling with borrowing rules to permit additional funds for investment.
Plaid Cymru launched a pre-Budget push for a government U-turn on the decision to axe winter fuel payments from 10 million pensioners, a move now widely acknowledged to have been a political disaster.
A Plaid statement said: “No-one should ever have to choose between heating and eating, but this is the cruel decision that many pensioners in Wales will have to make this winter.
“Labour must reverse their callous cuts to winter fuel payments.”
And Scottish TUC general secretary Roz Foyer said that “this Labour Budget must bring an end to austerity. The Chancellor simply must not return to the failed Tory economic model of public spending cuts.”
