Rachel Reeves is a ticking time bomb - she will punish savings, hard work and fatten benefit scroungers - Sally Ann Hart

For a coastal community like my former constituency of Hastings and Rye, her budget spells trouble: local businesses will struggle, jobs will vanish, and retirees—who have worked their entire lives—will feel the squeeze.

Reeves’ proposals to relax fiscal rules on borrowing, combined with reckless spending, are truly alarming.

Labour has a history of increasing taxes and borrowing, and Reeves’ plans will drag us right back to those failed policies.

For 14 years, we have all worked hard to get the country’s finances under control after Labour’s last disastrous government.

Now, all that progress is at risk. You cannot spend what you do not have, yet Reeves seems determined to blow taxpayers money without addressing the deep inefficiencies in public services. The result?

More pressure on already overburdened taxpayers and crumbling public services. Fiscal discipline is the cornerstone of long-term economic health.

Instead of throwing money at the problem, Labour should focus on cutting waste and ensuring that every pound of public spending works to deliver results.

Reeves, however, is blind to these necessities, leading the U.K. towards financial chaos. Perhaps the biggest red flag is the inevitable impact on businesses and high earners.

Reeves is looking to hike taxes to fund her ill-conceived plans, and we are already seeing a brain drain—just like in the 1970s—where business owners and investors are looking for opportunities elsewhere.

Despite Labour’s claim that the economy is starting to grow, the modest uptick we saw in August is thanks to Rishi Sunak’s policies, not Labour’s.

Reeves’ approach will stifle investment, halt job creation, and stall economic recovery right when we need private sector dynamism to rebuild.

Common-sense solutions like tax cuts for businesses, cutting red tape to create the conditions for growth, and incentivising investment is how you generate prosperity in the long term.

But Reeves is too trapped in her socialist ideology to see it. Retirees are squarely in Labour’s crosshairs too.

Instead of encouraging saving, Reeves seems determined to punish it, raiding pensions and cutting crucial benefits like the Winter Fuel Allowance.

After a lifetime of hard work and saving for their retirement, retirees should not have to pay for Labour’s reckless spending spree.

We should be empowering people to save for their own futures, reducing dependency on state aid while still protecting the most vulnerable.

Labour never learns. It is under Labour governments that the most vulnerable and disadvantaged suffer. They claim to stand for the working class, but their policies push people further into dependency.

Instead of smothering the economy with higher taxes and red tape, we should be cutting corporate taxes, streamlining regulation, and encouraging businesses to grow.

In Hastings and Rye—and across the UK—this would create jobs, boost productivity, and give people the opportunity to lift themselves out of poverty through hard work and ambition. Rachel Reeves’ budget is a ticking time bomb.

It will send public spending spiralling out of control, kill economic growth with suffocating taxes, and increase dependency on the welfare state. Communities like Hastings and Rye will bear the brunt of these misguided policies.

We cannot afford to let Labour ruin everything. The Conservative Party and Reform must put aside differences and get a grip —because Britain deserves better than the catastrophe Reeves is about to unleash. We cannot afford to wait.