UK minister promises 'real ambition' ahead of budget

Reeves seeks to project positive vision, vows to set out plans for new industrial strategy

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Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves promised to deliver a UK budget showing "real ambition" in October as she used her speech at the Labour Party's annual conference to project a positive vision for the country.

"This budget will be a budget for economic growth; it will be a budget for investment," she said on Sept 23 at the gathering in Liverpool. "My ambition knows no limits, because I can see the prize on offer if we make the right choices now."

Ms Reeves - who was interrupted during her speech by a heckler - is seeking to project a more positive vision for Britain after spending most of her 11 weeks in office warning of the dire state of the public finances she inherited from the previous Tory administration.

To fill a £22 billion (S$37.7 billion) fiscal hole, the chancellor is widely expected to announce tax increases in her budget on Oct 30.