Rachel Reeves to put women at the heart of Labour’s economic plans for election against Rishi Sunak’s Tories

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Rachel Reeves has vowed to put women at the heart of Labour’s economic plans in a bid to draw a pre-election dividing line with the Conservatives.

The shadow chancellor promised that the occasion’s plan for development could be “centred on equality for women”, whereas condemning the Tories for “leaving women worse off” after 14 years in energy.

Writing for The Independent on International Women’s Day, Ms Reeves stated unlocking the potential of feminine entrepreneurs may add £200bn to the measurement of Britain’s financial system.

She promised Labour would break down boundaries which have left women disproportionately working in childcare, social care and retail – whereas highlighting that “far too many women” are stored out of the office altogether for prolonged intervals after having kids.

Ms Reeves wrote: “Labour’s central economic mission is to get our economy growing again. I want to be clear about what that means for women – why an economic policy centred on equality for women should also be an economic policy centred on growth.”

She added: “Labour’s alternative is about the recognition that if we want to build a strong economy, that must be based on the contribution of the many. And that must mean a growth plan centred around women.”

Her intervention is the newest indication that Labour needs to make women’s rights a battleground in the normal election and comes after shadow women and equalities secretary Anneliese Dodds branded Rishi Sunak a major minister “who has let women down and left them out of pocket and unsupported at work”.

Ms Reeves additionally lashed out at the chancellor’s flagship childcare coverage – a serious enlargement of free childcare introduced final yr – as the mud settles on Jeremy Hunt’s Budget.

The new coverage permits eligible working mother and father of two-year-olds to declare 15 hours every week of free childcare for 38 weeks of the yr from April onwards. From September 2025, working mother and father who’ve kids beneath 5 will likely be in a position to declare 30 hours of free childcare for 38 weeks per yr.

But ministers have repeatedly refused to assure the pledge will likely be met after The Independent first revealed main issues with funding, employees shortages and nursery closures.

In a blistering assault on the coverage, Ms Reeves stated: “As the clamour around this year’s spring Budget dies down, it is worth revisiting the chancellor’s flagship commitment from one year ago: the expansion of new funded childcare places to children aged between nine months and two years old.

“With just six weeks until rollout, it is becoming increasingly clear that the Conservatives’ plan was little more than hot air – as my colleague Bridget Phillipson warned last week, “a pledge without a plan”.

“Labour’s research reveals that 180,000 places are at risk from more than 3,000 nursery closures due to the Tories’ botched offer. Separate surveys meanwhile have found that more than half of private, voluntary and independent nurseries of England are unable to meet existing local demand and are unlikely to, or unsure they could, offer any additional places for two-year-olds.”

Ms Reeves, who featured in The Independent’s record of the 50 most influential women of the second, stated Britain’s “broken childcare system” is not going to be mounted by “gimmicks”, highlighting the occasion’s early years evaluation being led by the former chief inspector of Ofsted, Sir David Bell.

Setting out her personal imaginative and prescient for energy, Ms Reeves stated serving as Britain’s first feminine chancellor could be “a privilege of my own”. The former Bank of England economist has vowed to make “great strides” towards abolishing the gender pay hole “once and for all”.

And in her Independent article, Ms Reeves stated a key half of doing so could be to encourage extra women into the workforce by fixing Britain’s childcare system.

She wrote: “As economists at Stanford and the London School of Economics have shown, the child penalty in the UK is substantially wider than in other European countries such as France, with far too many women kept out of the workforce for extended periods after having young children.

“Labour will work to build the modern childcare system that working people deserve, starting with our commitment to free breakfast clubs in every primary school. We will rescue our public services, as we have done before.

“And women will be at the heart of a plan for economic growth.”

The occasion is eager to spotlight what it sees as Conservative failures on women’s points since David Cameron got here to energy in 2010 as a key dividing line earlier than the election.

Meanwhile, setting out the Conservatives’ stall to households on Wednesday, Mr Hunt stated the high-income little one profit cost threshold will likely be raised from £50,000 to £60,000 and the taper will lengthen up to £80,000.

In an announcement hailed as a “win” by Martin Lewis, Mr Hunt additionally promised a session on the household-based system “in due course”, with this being launched by April 2026.

The chancellor stated the threshold will rise from April, lifting 170,000 households out of paying the expenses altogether.

On Friday, the prime minister hosted greater than 100 women in Downing Street, from enterprise leaders to charity and NHS employees.

The PM careworn his personal dedication to “delivering the long-term change needed to build a brighter future for women and girls”.

Setting out the “huge progress” Mr Sunak says he has made since taking up as prime minister, he touted the authorities’s childcare plan as “the largest ever childcare expansion in England’s history”.

The PM additionally stated he has ploughed thousands and thousands of kilos into to making women really feel safer on Britain’s streets, boosting training requirements, and championing women in Stem (science, know-how, engineering and maths) careers.

But he added: “I know there is more to do. Whether it’s making our NHS faster, simpler and fairer for women, or backing female-led businesses, I am determined to deliver the long-term change needed to grow our economy and ensure women across the whole country can succeed.”