No need for Labour to straight jacket itself with Tory tax & spending limits – Ian Lavery

“No hiding behind self-imposed fiscal rules will placate Labour voters if Labour in power does not deliver tangible benefits in the lives of working class people.”

Ian Lavery MP

By Ian Lavery MP

The Labour North Regional Conference was held in Newcastle up Tyne over the weekend of 2nd and 3rd March 2024 which gave delegates an opportunity to express some of their priorities to the Party’s leadership.

One motion that was passed encapsulates in my opinion the social goals that Labour Party members and the people in our communities will demand from Labour. The Conference voted unanimously that all Labour local and regional elected representatives campaign for universal free school meals and if in power to ensure that this becomes a reality, in line with the London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s popular programme. No hiding behind self-imposed fiscal rules will placate Labour voters and members if Labour in power does not deliver tangible benefits in the lives of working class people. Rapidly realisable policies such as free school meals is what they will demand.

We face an unprecedented social and economic crisis, probably the worst since the Second World War. The safety net of the Welfare State has long gone and levels of poverty that we thought had been banished are now wide spread. The working poor are now an every day fact of life. Last month the charity Action for Children published research that indicated that low income families with members in full time work would need an average pay rise of £168 per week to escape real term poverty. Such families simply cannot wait for the economy to deliver growth, they need immediate help from an incoming Labour Government.

The services on which working class families depend have often been delivered by local councils, but we face the once unimaginable prospect of many of them declaring in effect that they are bankrupt. This month we have seen the widespread decimation of services such as libraries, road repairs, the provision of the arts and even social care being experienced in major cities such as Nottingham and Birmingham.

A Labour Government will not be allowed to shrug its shoulders and declare such catastrophes as Tory economic legacies, they will have to have policies that help local councils to rebuild and to do so with some urgency, or they will face an early electoral backlash.

The Institute of Fiscal Studies has reported that Tory Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s published spending forecasts will lead to the worst real term cuts to the NHS budget since the 1970’s. These will be cuts to an NHS that is already in a deep crisis. Instead of the recruitment of skilled staff, there will be redundancies; waiting lists will grow, not shorten. A Labour Chancellor would not be forgiven if the destruction of Labour’s finest achievement is not stopped. Real injections of cash will be needed over an above any reforms so desired by the Shadow Health Secretary.

The New Labour Governments so often praised by the current leaders proved this to be the case. By reaching their target of average European health spending, they allowed the NHS to recover from the neglect of the Thatcher years and enabled it to top many international health performance indices. Yes there is room for sensible reforms, but most of all the NHS needs more money.

I well understand that Labour must establish its economic competence and that the threat of being attacked by the international financial markets is real, but there is no need for a Labour to straight jacket itself with Tory tax and spending limits.

Economists such as the Bank of England’s former Chief Economist Andy Haldane, not exactly a Marxist firebrand, have questioned such unnecessary restrictions and have called for public spending to enable the economy to recover. What fourteen years of Tory austerity has proven is that a lack of public investment in infrastructure, health and education stifles economic growth. A recognition of that fact shows true economic competence.

All members of the Labour Party want the end of Tory rule, but I sense a widespread disquiet amongst many sections of the Party regarding the Leadership’s stance on many issues. The Labour North Conference’s unanimous vote in favour of universal free school meals, something to which the Leadership will not commit, was a clear indication of the membership’s expectations.

The list of similar issues is extensive.

Sentiments such as “if Labour can’t commit to the end of foodbanks then what is it for?” are often heard within the ranks of ordinary members. We just have to examine where the failure of social democratic-led European governments to adopt progressive, socialist policies has led to recognise the consequences if a Labour Government repeats their mistakes.

Sadly, people will turn to the simplistic, decisive policies of the populist Right. If a Labour Government fails to meet people’s expectations, Farage amongst others will be waiting in the wings. The Labour Party must not allow that to happen.

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• Ian Lavery is the MP for Wansbeck, you can follow him on Facebook, Instagram and twitter.
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