“I cannot accept that extremely deprived people suffering the overwhelming burden of heartless poverty should have to wait for the expansion of the economy before Labour takes steps to drastically improve their lives”
By Ian Lavery MP
I am extremely pleased with the results of the General Election and with many of the policies contained in the King’s Speech. We should stand back and take notice how far we have come since the last Labour Government.
Would the New Labour Governments from 1997 to 2010 ever given us the New Deal for Working People, the biggest boost to Trade Unionism since Thatcher? Would they have published Bills to put train operations and buses back into public control or create GB Energy, a publicly owned renewable energy company that will own assets? Yes, we have made progress, but we cannot be complacent or satisfied until we totally destroy the Tory legacy of grotesque levels of poverty, especially child poverty.
I agree with the Labour Government’s commitment to economic growth based on net-zero criteria, as forgotten areas such as the former mining community I represent desperately need such economic regeneration. Nevertheless, I cannot accept that extremely deprived people suffering the overwhelming burden of heartless poverty should have to wait for the expansion of the economy before Labour takes steps to drastically improve their lives. To take that approach would, in effect, be to pursue a badly camouflaged “trickle down” neo-liberal economic policy. It would entail accepting that financial institutions and major corporations will first need to invest and be confident of results in terms of profitability before the poor can be assisted. The wealthiest must be content before the poorest can eventually have the benefits of economic growth “trickle down” to them. I would find this to be completely intolerable.
The UK we are told is the sixth largest economy in the world, meaning that there is large amounts of wealth in our country. It is, as we know, inequitably distributed. Since the Tories first came into power in 2010 the number of billionaires is estimated to have has grown from 53 to 177 in 2022, whilst wages have remained stagnant and the number of children living in poverty has grown by 700,00 to a total of 4 million. The super wealthy have become richer whilst we see many families with members in work being forced onto benefits and into using foodbanks, a phenomenon which I never thought I would see. The super rich have more than enough spare money to alleviate poverty in our society and the Labour Government has many options available to it for taxing a reasonable amount of those massive funds without breaking their commitment not to increase income tax, NI or VAT. For example, simply raising Capital Gains Tax to the same level as Income Tax ( as was done during the Thatcher Government) would bring in many billions of pounds that could be quickly used in a crusade to alleviate the scourge of poverty.
I do believe that the Labour Government will at some stage address the disgraceful current levels of child poverty and I consider that the announcement of the Government Task Force on Child Poverty is probably a positive step. But, the poor cannot afford to wait. First and foremost we must see the immediate end of the Two Child Benefit Limit which has been identified by many experts as one of he most significant causes of the rise in poverty levels since 2010. Affecting 1.6 million children, it is a cruel Tory policy and it should not exist for one second longer with Labour in power.
The second easy measure to help the poorest children would be free schools for all children. The Labour Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has paved the way and Keir Starmer’s Government should follow. Of course, Primary School Breakfast clubs as announced as in the King’s Speech will help, but so much more is needed.
I am hopeful that the Employments Rights Bill, with its commitment to a meaningful Real Living Wage and to making it easier for Unions to organise workforces, and to strike if necessary, will help alleviate the numbers of working poor, but that too will take some time to have an effect. Children are hungry and in poor health now; their lives dependent on Labour swiftly acting to end the deprivations from which they suffer.
The Labour Party’s historical mission is to work to improve the lives of the entire working class in the UK, but as socialists we must also accept our fundamental obligation to protect the poorest and most vulnerable in society. That is a principle that I cannot ignore. To put economic growth before assisting our poorest children would undermined basic Labour values and would be unacceptable to me and a great many of my fellow Labour MPs. I and others will do everything possible to fight to ensure that this does not happen.
- Ian Lavery is the MP for Blyth & Ashington, you can follow him on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter/X.
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