John Healey, left, being applauded by Andy Burnham, gave little sense in his conference speech of how he intends to pay for the prime minister\u2019s radical plans. Photograph: Christopher Thomond\/The GuardianView image in fullscreenJohn Healey, left, being applauded by Andy Burnham, gave little sense in his conference speech of how he intends to pay for the prime minister\u2019s radical plans. Photograph: Christopher Thomond\/The GuardianAnalysisHealey offers upbeat vision but sheds little light on how it will be paid forHeather Stewart Economics editorWith the budget a month away, chancellor gives little indication in conference speech of where money will come from to reindustrialise Britain Healey vows to stick to fiscal rules in budget UK politics live \u2013 latest updates John Healey cheered the Labour faithful with his first conference speech as chancellor, offering an upbeat vision of a reindustrialised Britain with fresh opportunities for young people \u2013 but gave little sense of how he intends to pay for Andy Burnham\u2019s radical plans.Healey\u2019s budget next month is widely seen both inside and outside Labour as the moment when the prime minister\u2019s radical rhetoric about ditching 40 years of neoliberal orthodoxy risks colliding with fiscal reality.With the global bond sell-off driving up government borrowing costs, and eye-watering energy prices likely to push up household bills in the new year, he did deliver some home truths to Labour members and cabinet colleagues.He deliberately and repeatedly highlighted his role in the last Labour government, as an aide to Gordon Brown, at one point recalling lending him a tie to deliver his conference speech, which Healey was wearing as he spoke, as a neat nod to that era.But he warned: \u201cThe money New Labour had in the 90s is simply not there now.\u201dHe said: \u201cThe worldwide economic shocks \u2013 conflicts, trade tensions \u2013 are felt hard at home. Britain has it harder now.\u201dLike Rachel Reeves before him, Healey sought to argue that fixing the public finances was a precondition for rebuilding the economy. \u201cThe rock of fiscal discipline.<\/p>\n
It underwrites every promise this government makes \u2026 we can\u2019t succeed without it.\u201dAttacking the Conservatives for driving the UK further into the red during their 14 years in power, he claimed that current levels of UK debt were \u201can assault on our common sense; they\u2019re an affront to our values\u201d \u2013 although Reeves deliberately redefined the government\u2019s fiscal rules to allow more borrowing to fund long-term investment, which Healey presumably doesn\u2019t resile from.Much of the speech hailed the benefits of new industries, creating good jobs for young people \u2013 including via new local apprenticeship teams, to be overseen by local mayors and matching firms to young people.\u201cThese times demand of us a greater resolve, a greater determination and a greater hope,\u201d he said, promising to pursue what he called the \u201cmoral duty\u201d of finding work for the almost 1 million young people not in education, employment or training (Neet), echoing language also used by the work and pensions secretary, Pat McFadden.Healey claimed that many of the Neets could form \u201cthe future workforce of a reindustrialised Britain\u201d, adding that he hoped they could move \u201cfrom generation jeopardy to generation hope\u201d.He also sought to fill in some of his own personal story to those outside the hall less familiar with a man who, he said, had given his first Labour conference speech a full 40 years ago, in 1986.He spoke of his wife, Jackie, whom he became engaged with a fortnight after their first meeting at a Labour function, and his first job as a pot washer in a pub, which taught him the joys of a hand-pulled pint.Yet he threw little light on how he was approaching a budget now exactly a month away, other than to recommit to Reeves\u2019s determination to balance the books, which will take more than optimism and a good story.Explore more on these topicsLabour conference 2026Economic policyJohn HealeyBudgetIndustrial policyTax and spendingLabouranalysisShareReuse this content<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
John Healey, left, being applauded by Andy Burnham, gave little sense in his conference speech of how he intends to pay for the prime minister\u2019s radical plans. Photograph: Christopher Thomond\/The GuardianView image in fullscreenJohn Healey,\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}