Rachel Reeves has paid tribute to Holocaust survivor Lily Ebert in her budget speech as she committed a further £2million for further education on the Shoah.
Delivering the first ever budget by a female chancellor, and the first by a Labour government in over 14 years, Reeves signalled out the work of the Holocaust Education Trust in her speech to MPs in the Commons on Wednesday.
She said:”I would like to pay tribute to Lily Ebert, the Holocaust survivor and educator who passed away aged 100 earlier this year.
“I am today committing a further £2millon for Holocaust education next year, so that charities like the Holocaust Education Trust continue their work to ensure that these vital testimonies are not lost and are preserved for the future.”
Keir Starmer, sitting next to the chancellor nodded in agreement, as MPs voiced their approval for the announcement.
HET later said the extra funding was ” fantastic news.”
In a post on X the charity added:” We are hugely grateful to the Chancellor for recognising our work. We are at a crucial juncture as Holocaust survivors become fewer and frailer, and the importance of ensuring their testimony is preserved and accessible for generations to come cannot be underestimated.
“With the surge in antisemitism today and as the Holocaust moves from living history to history, this work is vital and urgent.”
Reeves said a £40 billion increase in taxes were required in the budget after finding a £22bn “black hole” in the public finances she claimed had been covered up by the Tories, which she warned would have persisted over the next five years without immediate action.
But she said she was raising spending on the NHS and on state schools. Reeves confirmed VAT would be introduced for private schools in January.
There was a big increase in employers’ national insurance contributions, which will go up by 1.2 percentage points, to 15%, from April next year.
Thresholds will also come down from £9,100 per year to £5,000.
Reeves said the “difficult” tax-raising choices were required to stabilise the public finances after receiving a dire economic inheritance from the Conservatives.
“To begin a decade of national renewal. To fix the foundations and deliver change, through responsible leadership in the national interest. That is our task, and I know we can achieve it,” she said.
