This week’s Autumn Statement is a big moment for this Government. The Government says an emergency financial reset is necessary because of “global events” and it’s true most countries have been affected by fallout from Covid and the invasion of Ukraine. But Britain is the only country that is having an emergency budget. The cause of the crisis was actually the disastrous sugar rush minibudget of a few weeks ago which left households paying for those mistakes through higher mortgages, higher taxes and less money for public services in the future.

The NHS is already suffering. 7 million people are waiting for treatment and nearly 3 million people are off work because of sickness. Pressure on services, usually acute in the winter months, is already taking a toll. There was never a nurses strike with a Labour Government but now staff have been pushed to the edge by what is happening around them.

The NHS’s problems have been 12 years in the making. For all that time there hasn’t been a proper plan for the workforce with enough doctors or nurses. That could be changed by closing Non-Dom tax status which currently allows a few people who live and work here to decide where in the world they pay their tax. Closing that loophole will help to get people healthy and get people who are currently economically inactive, back to work. That would reduce the cost of keeping people sick and mean they can play their part in growing the economy which would in turn mean better public services.