“We have the resources to end the appalling levels of hardship. We just need the political will.”
We publish for information below a letter to Rachel Reeves MP from 5 MPs ahead of #Budget2024:
Dear Chancellor of the Exchequer,
We are writing to you as the Independent Alliance to ask that you fund welfare, not warfare.
It is a national scandal that 4.2 million children and 2.1 million pensioners are living in poverty in the sixth richest country in the world. Mass hunger isn’t inevitable. Rough sleeping isn’t inevitable. Food banks are not inevitable. We have the resources to end the appalling levels of hardship in this country. We just need the political will.
You have previously told the British public to prepare for “difficult decisions” to repair this nation’s finances. At the very same time, you have committed to raising defence expenditure to 2.5% of GDP. Imagine if we spent that money on renewable energy, social housing, schools and the NHS instead? Security is not the ability to destroy your neighbour. Real security is getting on with your neighbour, protecting our planet, and giving everyone enough resources to live in dignity.
In the upcoming Budget, we call upon you to include the following:
- Abolish the 2-child benefits cap. Since the election, more than 10,000 children have been pushed into poverty by the two-child limit. Abolishing the cap would cost £1.4bn and lift 250,000 children out of poverty overnight. Where is the justification in saying that the third or fourth child is less important than the first or second?
- Reverse cuts to winter fuel allowance. Four in every five pensioners living below or just above the poverty line are set to lose the winter fuel payment. That includes 1.1 million people with disabilities. We urge you to defend the principle of universalism to ensure everyone has the support they need.
- Implement a wealth tax. Since 2010, the UK’s richest 1% have tripled their wealth, and now own more than 70% per cent of the population. A 2% tax on wealth above £10 million would raise £24bn. With that, you could abolish the 2-child benefits cap 17 times over, invest in our NHS, or restore vital funding for local councils that have been forced to cut back on essential services.
- Reject and reverse cuts to welfare. More than two thirds of children in poverty live with a parent in work. We must support, not stigmatise, welfare recipients.
- Recommit to green investment. The climate emergency is the single greatest crisis of our time. We urge you to reconsider the decision to row back on the pledge for £28bn of green investment. The cost of inaction is so much greater.
In 1945, a Labour government inherited an economy ravaged by the Second World War. They built the NHS and the welfare state. Crises are not an excuse for inaction. They are an opportunity for transformation. Today, that means offering an alternative to poverty, inequality and war.
Years of austerity and privatisation have decimated our communities, destroyed our public services and pushed millions of people into destitution. You have a chance to transform this country by redistributing wealth and power. We implore you not to let this precious opportunity go to waste.
Yours sincerely,
Adnan Hussain MP, Ayoub Khan MP, Iqbal Mohamed MP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Shockat Adam MP.
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