“Achieving short-term savings by slashing support for the disabled is not going to get more people into work.”
By Brian Leishman MP
Is it to be more of the same austerity that for 14 years has impoverished communities the length and breadth of the UK, or does he do what is right and look after our most vulnerable citizens?
Last summer, the British people returned a huge Labour majority because they wanted a change from the cruel policies of austerity that have created gross inequality. With austerity being the cause of more than 330,000 excess deaths, people and communities have been decimated, demoralised and disenfranchised by politics and politicians who have inflicted pain, misery and suffering.
But whilst it’s a huge majority, the government would do well to recognise that support is incredibly shallow. Opinion polls have been consistent in showing that the electorate are not happy with the actions of this new government.
“Change” was very much the buzzword of the general election campaign. People wanted it and Keir Starmer wasn’t shy in telling them that the Labour Party had indeed, changed.
On that note, the Prime Minister and I are in complete agreement.
The days of being unequivocally anti-austerity, of being the party that would redistribute both wealth and power into the hands of the many feel a long time ago.
The message of correcting the inequality that is reducing living standards and is ripping our country apart has been replaced by the fascination of pursuing economic growth at all costs. Growth is only part of the solution in improving people’s living standards, which is the measurement that we, and every government is judged on.
The rumoured cuts to welfare are an assault on the most vulnerable people in our society.
Being disabled comes with extra costs – you may need electrical equipment for mobility issues or even to help you breathe, or you may need a specialised diet. The national disability charity, Sense, have highlighted that 43% of disabled people with complex needs are in debt because their welfare payments don’t cover the essentials of food and utility bills.
The Trussell Trust and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation are correct in their calls for an essentials guarantee. It’s a stain on the UK that millions of people are not able to cover the cost of the most basic needs in life.
That must change.
The welfare system does need reform – it needs to provide enough for the essentials in life. Billions of pounds of cuts to welfare is the wrong thing to do.
Achieving short-term savings by slashing support for the disabled is not going to get more people into work.
The government should be focused on creating better opportunities and conditions for people to get into work and overcome barriers. People need more support, not less.
We should be increasing welfare, not cutting it. There is an alternative to the relentless cuts and austerity our country has suffered from.
Make the multi millionaires with assets over £10 million pay. Let’s tax the ultra-rich and invest in people and communities.
The UK has become a desperately unequal place. The wealth of the few has rocketed while ordinary people have become poorer after the failed ideology of austerity, then a pandemic and then a cost of living crisis that has seen corporations run riot.
Instead of playing the Tory game of endless cuts, let us be the anti-austerity party we always should be. Let us have an annual wealth tax of two per cent on those with assets worth £10 million and more.
It will raise £24 billion which can then be used to get on with the work of improving living standards to make the UK a more equal society. Let us lead by example on the world stage and create a version of Britain we can truly be proud of.
Our Labour government has to build a fairer UK that puts an end to the relentless accumulation of wealth by corporations, an accumulation that only serves to create more inequality and drives people into poverty and despair.
Leave the Tories to the notion that inequality is a necessity for society to thrive. There is money and there are solutions out there. It’s time for real “change”.
- Brian Leishman is the MP for Alloa and Grangemouth
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