It’s hard to believe that Labor has actually only been in power for 116 days.

One hundred and sixteen days of resignation of advisors, spending hypocrisyskirmishes with international investors, throwing money at their union friends, misleading us about the UK’s finances and abandoning national sovereignty. For those of us who believe in constructive opposition, there isn’t much to be constructive about. How can they be so bad?

This will prove it again tomorrow when Labor presents its first budget in fourteen years. And they have already let it slip that, as part of this, they are going to attempt a major scam – one that will reverberate through the decades and for which our children and grandchildren will pay. The incredible thing is that it is also a project that, because it has no plan, will do nothing to improve the lives of ordinary people.

And what is this scam? Change the UK’s fiscal rules so that the government can borrow more money from taxpayers to spend on capital and infrastructure.

“We’re going to change the debt measure,” Rachel Reeves boasted last Thursday. We don’t know the exact details yet but we know it’s happening. And, with those eight words, Reeves is about to go on a spending spree with the nation’s credit card, throwing billions into an unreformed system that will take the money but not produce results.

At first glance, unlock a wave of money to build new roads, railways and hospitals it looks awesome. However, nothing in this world is ever free. Changing the rules does not change the fundamental position the UK finds itself in; there is no such thing as a magical money tree that has been miraculously discovered. This is a technical change that, no matter how it is dressed up, is ultimately more of a borrowing. And it’s time Labor told people about the consequences of their attempts to fudge the figures.

First, this is a fundamental breach of trust. Earlier this year, Labor swept to power on a manifesto that its fiscal rules were “non-negotiable”. Nowhere in this lengthy document is it stated that a change would be made to these rules, which could increase UK borrowing by up to £50 billion. We have just seen what voters did to the Conservatives when their trust was lost. Playing fast and loose with the nation’s finances means playing with fire.

Second, technical changes have real consequences. Ultimately, debt is debt. The more we engage, the riskier and less resilient our country becomes in the eyes of investors. As soon as Reeves disclosed the news of his scam, UK bond yields began to rise. Some commentators now expect interest rates to fall more slowly. Every month that interest rates don’t fall means that an additional 120,000 households across the country are setting their mortgages higher than they otherwise would. And, over time, higher tax rates mean higher taxes or less spending elsewhere. For a Labor Party which mercilessly hunted Liz Truss in 2022 for real impacts, the principle is the same. Actions have consequences – and Labor appears to have learned nothing.

Thirdly, this announcement highlights the utter incoherence at the heart of the Starmer project. Today, Rachel Reeves is dreaming up billions of pounds to invest in infrastructure. This would be the same Rachel Reeves who, at the end of July, canceled a series of infrastructure projects for lack of money. This announcement comes too late for the A303 Stonehenge Tunnel, the A27 Arundel Bypass and the 23 Restoring Your Railway funds which were all axed by Reeves just weeks ago. Labor doesn’t know whether this is coming or going.

Fourth, and most unforgivable, it is almost certain that this increase in the cost of mortgages for many people in our country will fail. Infrastructure delivery has been slowing down for years in our country, bogged down by increasing judicial scrutiny, endless consultations, nihilistic activism, overextended quangos and unnecessary legislation designed to protect the environment that does no such thing.

Most major projects take a decade or more to build. Millions more are being spent putting spades in the ground than a decade ago – and, even once projects get underway, costs usually skyrocket. My party was slowly trying to resolve the problem; Labor doesn’t even have a plan.

Take a striking example: the new Lower Thames Crossing which, if built, will be the first major new road crossing of the River Thames in decades. So far we have spent £300 million worth of paperwork and planning has not even been approved – a decision Labor decided to delay earlier this month. Norway actually built a tunnel three times as long for less money. If Labor doesn’t reform the system to speed it up, then all that money sitting on our debt will just be swallowed up by rows over bats, skirmishes with Natural England and vacations for expensive consultants.

When I nominated myself to become leader of the Conservative Party, I said the system was broken. Nowhere is this more evident than in the way we build infrastructure in the UK. What I didn’t expect was that Labor would make this mess worse by throwing precious taxpayers’ money into an unreformed system and thereby breaking their own promises to the British people.

And therein lies a warning for my party. The Labor Party’s budget woes are a prime example of what happens when politicians promise simplistic solutions but fail to implement the hard tasks. This is what happens when you haven’t thought it through, you promise policies without details, and you don’t have a plan. If I have the privilege of being the next leader of the Conservative Party, it is a mistake we will not make again.

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