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Labour has pledged legislation requiring future governments to get an independent impact assessment of any significant tax and spending commitments they wish to make.

Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have vowed to strengthen the role of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) as part of the party’s plan to “bring growth and stability back to Britain’s economy”.

The intervention comes ahead of the anniversary of Liz Truss‘s calamitous mini-budget, which lacked an official forecast from the OBR, spooking the markets and triggering a huge economic fallout.

Labour said families and businesses are “still paying the price” for her “crashing the economy” – with households coming off fixed rate mortgages paying an average of £220 more a month and inflation forecast to be the highest in the G7.

They have billed their proposal as a “fiscal lock” which would ensure fiscal stability by:

  • Amending the legal framework governing the OBR to guarantee that where a fiscal event makes permanent tax and spending changes over a certain threshold, the fiscal watchdog can independently publish a forecast of the impact
  • Setting out the threshold in a revised charter of budget responsibility, that would be voted on in Parliament
  • Ensuring that in the event of an emergency where changes must be introduced at speed and a forecast cannot be produced in time, the OBR would be allowed to set a date for when it can publish its forecast
  • Setting out a fixed timetable for budgets that would say major fiscal decisions are announced by the end of November each year, allowing businesses and families four months to prepare for the new tax year and avoiding major changes to policy at the last minute
  • Annual autumn budgets would be followed by a spring update in early March providing an updated forecast and minor policy changes

Speaking ahead of a visit with the Labour leader to the London Stock Exchange on Friday, the shadow chancellor said: “The economic damage done by the Conservatives’ mini-budget was nothing short of disastrous and Britain is still paying the price, with higher mortgages, higher energy bills and higher prices in the shops.

“As chancellor, my mission will be to bring stability back to our economy because that is the only way we can bring growth back. Never again can a prime minister or chancellor be allowed to repeat the disastrous mistakes of last year’s mini-budget.

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“Labour will introduce a new fiscal lock to strengthen the UK’s financial stability to prevent the turmoil we witnessed this time last year. Labour will ensure stability returns to our economy and on that rock of stability working people will be better off.”

Labour has been seeking to pitch itself as fiscally prudent, prioritising stabilising the economy over big spending commitments in a move that has angered some unions and those on the left.

They have sought to weaponise the anniversary of the Truss mini-budget to hammer home their message of fiscal responsibility, while highlighting the government’s record on the economy.

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Truss ‘tried to fatten and slaughter the pig’

Ms Truss’ £45bn package of unfunded tax cuts, which she admitted would primarily have benefited the wealthy, sent the pound tumbling, interest rates soaring and culminated with the Bank of England having to intervene to prevent pension markets from collapsing.

Although she rowed back on her measures and sacked her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, it was not enough to save her administration from collapsing and she resigned after just 49 days in the job – making her the shortest serving prime minister in British history.

She is still facing criticism over her actions, with the former Bank of England governor Mark Carney this week accusing her of turning Britain into “Argentina on the Channel” instead of “Singapore on the Thames”.

But Ms Truss has remained unrepentant, blaming “institutional bureaucracy” for her downfall.

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Russia seizes $10M in Bitcoin from ex-official in bribery case

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Russia seizes M in Bitcoin from ex-official in bribery case

The Bitcoin seized from former ICRF employee Marat Tambiev will be turned into Russian state revenue.

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Philippine banks collaborate to launch PHPX stablecoin on Hedera

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Philippine banks collaborate to launch PHPX stablecoin on Hedera

Philippine banks are collaborating to launch the PHPX stablecoin for real-time remittances, leveraging Hedera’s DLT network and cross-border payment solutions.

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Harriet Harman calls for ‘mini inquiry’ into race issues raised by grooming gangs scandal

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Harriet Harman calls for 'mini inquiry' into race issues raised by grooming gangs scandal

Harriet Harman has suggested a “mini inquiry” into issues raised by the grooming gangs scandal and called on Sir Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch to discuss “terms of reference”.

The Labour peer told Sky’s political editor Beth Rigby on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast that there should “openness” to a future probe as long it does not repeat the previous investigations.

In particular, she said people need to be “trained and confident” that they can take on matters “which are in particular communities” without being accused of being racist.

“I think that whether it’s a task force, whether it’s more action plans, whether it’s a a mini inquiry on this, this is something that we need to develop resilience in,” Ms Harman said.

The grooming gangs scandal is back in the spotlight after Elon Musk hit out at the Labour government for rejecting a new national inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham, saying this should be done at a local level instead.

The Tories also previously said an Oldham inquiry should be done locally and in 2015 commissioned a seven-year national inquiry into child sex abuse, led by Professor Alexis Jay, which looked at grooming gangs.

However, they didn’t implement any of its recommendations while in office – and Sir Keir has vowed to do so instead of launching a fresh investigation into the subject.

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Ms Harman said she agreed with ministers that there is “no point” in a rerun of the £200m Jay Review, which came on top of a number of locally-led inquiries.

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Grooming gangs are ‘in every single part of our country’, Jess Phillips says

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Grooming gangs: What happened?

However, she said there’s “always got to be an openness to further analysis, further consideration of what proposals would move things forward”.

She called on the Conservative Party to start “sensibly discussing with the government what should be the parameters of a future inquiry”, as they “can’t really be arguing they want an absolute repeat of the seven years and £200 million of the Jay inquiry”.

She said the Tories should set out their “terms of reference”, so “the government and everybody can discuss whether or not they’ve already got that sorted”.

Girls as young as 11 were groomed and raped across a number of towns in England – including Oldham, Rochdale, Rotherham and Telford – over a decade ago in a national scandal that was exposed in 2013.

In many cases the victims were white and the perpetrators of south Asian descent – with the local inquiry into Telford finding that exploitation was ignored because of unease about race.

The Jay review did not assess whether ethnicity was a factor in grooming gangs due to poor data, and recommended the compilation of a national core data base on child sex abuse which records the ethnicity of the victim and alleged perpetrator.

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PM: People ‘spreading lies’ are ‘not interested in victims’

Ms Harman’s comments come after the Labour Metro Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, said he believed there was a case for a new “limited national inquiry”.

He told the BBC that a defeated Tory vote on the matter was “opportunism”, but a new probe could “compel people to give evidence who then may have charges to answer and be held to account”.

Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister who has born the brunt of Mr Musk’s attacks, has told Sky News “nothing is off the table” when it comes to a new inquiry – but she will “listen to victims” and not the world’s richest man.

Sir Keir has said he spoke to victims this week and they do not want another inquiry as it would delay the implementations of the Jay review – though his spokesman later indicated one could take place if those affected call for it.

Tory leader Ms Badenoch has argued that the public will start to “worry about a cover-up” if the prime minister resists calls for a national inquiry, and said no one has yet “joined up the dots” on grooming.

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