Starmer Warns of ‘Painful’ Budget to Rebuild UK Finances
- Prime minister speaks ahead of Parliament’s return next week
- Says economic inheritance is ‘worse than we ever imagined’
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Keir Starmer warned that his government’s October budget statement will be “painful” and asked the nation to accept “short-term pain for long-term good,” as the prime minister used his first major speech in office to lay the ground for likely tax rises.
“Things are worse than we ever imagined,” Starmer said in Downing Street on Tuesday, blaming the need to rebuild UK public finances on what he called “14 years of rot” under the previous Conservative government. “It’s going to be painful. We have no other choice, given the situation that we’re in.”