Balram Sampla
Budget Analysis
Geopolitics
(Asian independent) John Healey quit as Defence Secretary because he said the government was not funding defence properly. He wrote that the plan fell well short of what the country needed. That was his big moment, and it brought down a Prime Minister.
Then he got the keys to the Treasury. Now it is his money to spend, and his promises look very different.
On defence, the pledge that made his name has slipped. He says defence is “100 per cent” his priority, but his own 3% target is again tied to the next spending review. He has still not said where the money will come from. A man who resigned over missing money now has the power to find it. He has found excuses.
Yet there was plenty of cash for other things. Ukraine gets a £10 billion package, the biggest ever. Supporting Ukraine is a fair cause, but look at the detail. Most of it is loans and guarantees, with only £500 million for the winter. The Chancellor who said defence was starved had billions to give away abroad while his own plan waits for later.
At home, families got far less than they were promised. Labour told voters energy bills would fall by £300. That was quietly cut to £150. Now the answer is £100, and only for houses in council tax bands A to D, plus a VAT cut that runs out. Families in bands E to H get nothing, whatever their bills look like. Voters were promised a real cut and are getting a small payment.
Meanwhile welfare keeps growing. The official forecast says it will reach about £431 billion by 2031-32. The Budget put aside £5.5 billion to raise benefits with inflation. The two-child limit is gone. The basic jobseeker allowance has risen faster than prices. Serious reform is pushed off until “reviews” report. Kemi Badenoch says the government is “addicted to welfare.” You do not have to agree with her on everything to see that no plan to bring the bill down has been put on the table.
So what do working people get? Higher taxes on savings and rental income, a tax burden critics call the highest in history, and a Chancellor who says he is balanced.
The pattern is clear. When Healey was out of power, he demanded money for defence. In power, he has delayed it, borrowed for Ukraine, trimmed Labour’s energy promise and left the welfare bill alone. A politician who gives up on his principle the moment it becomes costly is not a man of conviction.
