Reeves riles with her trad socialism stance

SELF-righteousness has always been an ugly ingredient in Labour's character.

- Leo McKinstry

It was Harold Wilson who declared in 1962 that “the Labour Party is a moral crusade or it is nothing”. But claims of superiority have never looked more hollow than in the aftermath of Rachel Reeves's grubby Budget.

Putting party before country, exuding dishonesty, rewarding irresponsibility and punishing ambition, the Chancellor's package was a vast exercise in the inversion of morality.

The Budget was the opposite of what our nation needs. Reeves should have nurtured growth by encouraging enterprise, promoting employment and reducing debts through reductions in state expenditure and taxes. But she went down a very different path one that penalises the workers and feather-beds the shirkers.

In taking this route, Reeves has shown she has not learnt anything from her disastrous first Budget, which hiked national insurance and helped trash 276,000 jobs.