LIVERPOOL, England -- British Treasury chief Rachel Reeves will pledge Monday not to return to an era of public spending cuts despite the dire state of the U.K.’s national finances.Reeves plans to stress optimism in a speech to the Labour Party’s annual conference, aiming to reassure party members, jittery despite a recent landslide election victory, that her first budget next month won’t be all doom and gloom.The party said Reeves, the U.K.’s first female finance minister, will stress that “my optimism for Britain burns as bright as it ever has done.”The center-left party is gathering in the northwest England port city of Liverpool three months after winning power in Britain’s July 4 election.While Labour's return to office after 14 years in opposition has many delegates buzzing, some are anxious about the government’s faltering start and downbeat economic messaging.Prime Minister Keir Starmer won the election on a promise to banish years of turmoil and scandal under the Conservatives, get Britain’s sluggish economy growing and restore frayed public services such as the state-funded National Health Service.Since then, he has struck a gloomy note, saying there is a 22 billion pound ($29 billion) “black hole” in the public finances left by the Conservative government, and warning that “things will get worse” before they get better.
That has many party members worried that tax increases and spending cuts loom in the Oct.30 budget.Reeves plans to say “there will be no return to austerity” and stress that the government will invest to reverse declines in “growth, productivity and family incomes,” according to advance extracts released by the party.“Conservative austerity was a destructive choice for our public services -– and for investment and growth too,” Reeves is to say about spending cuts imposed by previous governments after the 2008 global financial crisis.
“We must deal with the Tory legacy and that means tough decisio...