CLP Chair, Alex Knudsen, responds to the Chancellor’s Spring Budget
The Chancellor’s Spring Statement should be seen by the electorate as the final confirmation (if any were needed) of the uncaring callousness that typifies this Conservative government’s actions. Ignore the bogus claims to be ‘levelling up’ and the crocodile tears for those in need and consider what Mr Sunak’s response to the current cost of living crisis and rising inflation actually is.
The Chancellor did absolutely nothing to raise benefit levels in the face of a more than doubling of the inflation rate since these levels were set and predictions of further inflation to come. Instead, he has merely provided local authorities with an inadequate ‘hardship fund’ and left them to deal with the inevitable poverty which will ensue. This is in spite of lobbying from pressure groups of left and right, such as the Resolution Foundation and the Centre for Policy Studies and an open letter from a wide range of charities who see the impact of poverty every day begging him to act. The response of any caring, or even competent government would be to bring forward rises to state pensions, universal credit and other benefits in recognition of the impact of such sharp rises in inflation as the best way of supporting those in greatest need.
While the uplift in the starting rate for paying National Insurance will help those in low-paid employment and some help has been given on energy bills, the Resolution Foundation calculate that the failure to raise benefit levels will lead to the number of people living in ‘absolute poverty’ (defined as less than 60% of average income) will rise to 12.5 million.
Of course, nobody could have anticipated the Covid pandemic or the war in Ukraine which have both disrupted our economy. Yet many of the root causes of the current poverty crisis must be laid at the door of over a decade of Conservative rule. Failure to invest enough in renewable sources of energy and home insulation left us exposed to fuel price rises. Erosion of Trade Unions has allowed corporations to maximise profits and dividends while driving down wages, casualising employment and adopting ‘fire and re-hire’ practices without sanctions. Successive privatisations of public services have allowed this rot to spread throughout the economy.
The only gleam of light in the current desperate situation is that it may finally encourage more people to see this government’s true colours, shamelessly fostering an outrageously unequal society instead of trying to reverse its cruel effects.
Alex Knudsen
Chair, Mid Worcestershire Labour Party
Letter first published in the 31st March 2022 Evesham Journal and 8th April 2022 Droitwich Standard