It must be April Fool’s Day, as Rachel Reeves just said “promise made, promise kept”

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has suggested Labour’s mantra is “promise made, promise kept” but anyone who’s been paying attention knows the opposite is true.

During the election we promised to put more money in working people’s pockets.

At the Budget I announced that we would increase the national minimum and living wage.

Today 3 million working people will receive that pay boost.

Promise made, promise kept.

— Rachel Reeves (@RachelReevesMP) April 1, 2025

First off, the idea Labour is putting “more money in working people’s pockets” is not backed up by analysis. According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), the average family will be £1,400 worse off by 2030 under the government’s plans. And, relatively, the poorest will face the worst of the fresh living standards crisis.

It looks like a small rise in the minimum wage isn’t offsetting this.

Energy – prices up

Ahead of the election, Labour repeatedly claimed it would bring down energy bills. Yet the Ofgem price cap is increasing by 6.4% as of April 2025. This is a choice of private profit over public good. The UK’s largest suppliers of gas made £65bn in net profit in 2023.

Far from ‘promise made, promise kept’

Disabled people – cut

Labour pledged to support disabled people and consult them on changes. But then Reeves announced huge cuts to disabled people’s support in her spring statement. There were only two references to welfare in Labour’s manifesto and no mention of benefits.

For the party that introduced the National Insurance Act of 1946 that increased and extended unemployment benefits, this was quite the omission. Indeed, it shows that Labour were hiding their cuts to disabled people’s income from the public ahead of them entering government. Hardly ‘promise made, promise kept’.

Council tax – up

Before the election, Labour promised to freeze council tax. Keir Starmer said:

Not a penny more on your council tax, not a penny more than the bill you paid last year

Yet they have signed off on rises of up to 10%. ‘Promise made, promise kept?’ Nope!

Austerity 2.0

In Labour’s manifesto, it reads “there will be no return to austerity”. And Reeves reiterated this at the September Labour conference. But, like George Osborne before her, chancellor Rachel Reeves has branded austerity as ‘efficiency savings’. If successive governments have already starved public services of funds, further cuts won’t help. In December, Reeves instructed each government department to find 5% savings on their current budgets over the next five years. These appear to offset other budget increases across Whitehall. ‘Promise made, promise broken’.

End cronyism

In its manifesto, Labour pledged to end the cronyism that the Tories presided over. Yet Labour has been handing jobs to big donors. Cayman Islands-registered hedge fund Quadrature has huge shares in fossil fuels (as well as arms and private healthcare) and it donated £4m to Labour, it’s largest single donation ever. Then, Starmer’s party made the co-chair of a board of Quadrature’s charitable foundation arm, Rachel Kyte, its climate envoy.

Further, Labour gave its donor Ian Corfied a role as temporary director of the Treasury. He is still an adviser. And then there’s the No 10 pass Starmer gave to Waheed Alli, another donor.

On top of that, Starmer has failed to declare so-called “informal lobbying”, casting a shadow over how corporations and individuals influence government.

That’s all before you get to Starmer breaking every single pledge he made to become party leader. We call that bullshit personified.

Featured image via the Canary