Can Labour Actually Fix the Finances?

With the Tories apparently leaving a £22Bn black hole in the UK's finances, Labour have a difficult task ahead to balance the books. So in this video, we take a look at how the Chancellor plans to address it and whether they'll be enough to fix things.

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[gingerkilkus]

Our economy struggling with uncertainties, housing issues, foreclosures, global fluctuations, and pandemic aftermath, causing instability. Rising inflation, sluggish growth, and trade disruptions need urgent attention from all sectors to restore stability and stimulate growth.

[alanwelch]

That note on the EU investing every year what this wealth fund invests over 5 hurt my soul

[huwgrossmith]

The biggest issue is that nothing was learnt from the 08 crash. The UK still relies far too heavily on a service economy and needs to get manufacturing going again.

[tonyb]

Why do we continue to pretend that brexit is not a significant cause of the lack of investment? It is obvious, if you are a large multinational company looking to invest, the advantages of investing in mainland Europe offers greater access to a larger market with easier access than post-brexit Britain does.

[ThomasGray-ge]

depends on if they end austerity

would be nice to actually have some functional infrastructure

[njipods]

i dont mind paying hight taxes. if im getting good health care and education ect

i also dont mind having medioce services if im paying very little in tax

but dont take my money and give me austerity!

[fateenshareef]

The hope that private sector will match 3 pounds to 1 of the public sector is fanciful. UK has a limited market and the world is moving to a more isolationist economy. Growth and investment without access to the customs union will be very difficult to achieve. UK already does not have a significant income that it spends on consumption, so who would invest when the promise of profit is so small.

[hannesflo]

Turn the lights on in your room, it's too dark

[alexflorance]

The country has plenty of wealth already, just only a few people have it all and the rest of the population owe them money

[glassmuxxic]

A country that has refused to invest in hard infrastructure for decades whilst promising its increasingly unproductive, ageing citizens ever-expanding welfare goodies and making the investment environment less and less attractive. Who would have thought it would end this way? 🤔
Sadly expect the British people will make it politically impossible to do what's needed. See it even in the comments on this video: more begging for expansion of government money/spending on opex as the solution. Laughable.

[smivan.]

It's a bit unclear - so what *is* the remaining source of government revenue that Reeves can leverage (marked in black on the pie charts)?

[Pietzu]

Here in Finland our debt has been skyrocketing because of government overspending by previous governments. Last government wouldnt agree to any spending cuts and destroyed the healthcare system with reforms. Now our healthcare system is running out of money because of the aging population.

[paulburns]

We could start by banning all companies from Britain that do business here but pay their tax in Ireland.

[tidbit]

They should introduce a wealth tax; 1% if you are worth 100 million pounds, 2% if you are worth 200 million pounds and so on until you reach 2 billion pounds of worth at which point you pay the maximum wealth tax rate of 20%. And yes, that's 20% of your wealth. People should stop paying Capital gains and income tax when they have more than 50 million in net worth, at which point they would pay an annual wealth tax of 0.5% or 250, 000 pounds. This tax would mean that no one could ever accumulate more than roughly 1 billion pounds ever again because they would be earning a Return On Investment(ROI) of roughly 10% or 100million in real terms, and then having to pay a 10% wealth tax of roughly 100 million, so they literally cannot become any wealthier. This fixes a problem in current democracies where certain individuals are worth so much money they can essentially control the laws and the law makers in certain areas; this is of course anti-democratic and should be eliminated with a progressive wealth tax as proposed. This would bring in billions of pounds to invest in the NHS, educations, and other infrastructure in addition to eliminating the deficit and replacing it with a surplus. And of course if Britain wants even better growth then they should have a referendum and vote to rejoin the EU, the UK may even be allowed to keep the pound if they kiss Europe's ass enough, and of course Britain would have to guarantee that any vote to leave the EU in the future would require 3-4 referendums with a vote of more than 60% leave in all of them, taken over a ten to twelve year period, and then that would initiate a slow exit over the following ten to twelve years in which new trade deals would have to be crafted within specific time periods or the act of leaving would be cancelled.

[inshal]

How come Canada is able to fund a bunch of social programs while being a much smaller economy? Why does the UK have to make cuts? Canada just passed a national school food program. Canada also has incredibly low debt to GDP

[ap]

Why is cooperate tax on foreign companies and wealth tax always avoided. That's literally what will close the gap.

[reheyesd]

I feel like this will be the next political talking point every election but nothing actually gets done

[thecymrus]

Why do we not have a laugh react on Youtube? Labour are going with Austerity 2.0, they just aren't calling it that. Also, there's more disastrous reliance on private sector investment, as if that isn't causing a lot of the problems we have now. As Japan told us in 2008, you can't cut your way to growth. Investment by the public sector on assets with a fiscal multiplier will get the economy moving again. For example, build lots of social housing, it's badly needed and will reduce bills, while creating jobs and giving people skills. Mark my words, reliance on private investment will spark another PFI-like scandal.

[julianshepherd]

If you beleive austerity causes growth then YES
But history shows it won't

[ciandoyle]

Declining tax revenue from using low skill and cheap labour that earns a fraction of the wages that are retiring out of the economy.