“Starmer et. al are ideologically committed to travelling further down the road of neo-liberalism, cuts & privatisation – meaning ever-greater misery for millions.”
Matt Willgress, Labour Outlook
There is growing opposition across society to Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves’ continued adherence to failed neo-liberal, austerity policies, and this will come to a head with the vote in Parliament on proposed cuts to disability benefits.
As all the latest opinion polling shows, with Labour slumping in the polls and losing support in all directions, the decisions to proceed with deep cuts being made by Reeves, Starmer and co. will both cause great human suffering and prove deeply unpopular.
The opposition to disability benefit cuts doesn’t just come from the left of the Parliamentary Labour Party, with – prior to the latest changes – the media regularly reporting over 150 Labour MPs had expressed some kind of concern or opposition to them, despite the overwhelmingly ‘Starmerite’ inclinations of them. Now, after some policy changes (see more detail below) the media is still reporting significant levels of disquiet.
Furthermore, 59% of Labour members had wanted Starmer fully to reverse these plans, even though both Party membership as a whole, and the Left in the Party, have shrunk dramatically since 2020.
With all the media talk of ‘U-turns’ it is still worth recapping just how bad the human consequences of the original package of cuts suggested by the Government were due to be, as it illustrates both what they were prepared to do, and how far they may be prepared to go in the future in terms of austerity policies.
The original proposals meant that some 800,000 people faced losing their Personal Independence Payment, and removing Limited Capability for Work or Work Related Activity as part of reforms to the Work Capability Assessment, will leave disabled people across the country at risk of facing sanctions.
This would have meant over 3 million disabled people losing payments, 350,000 people, including 50,000 children, falling into poverty and disabled people losing on average £1720 a year.
As Kathy Bole of Disability Labour put it, these proposals were “as bad as anything put forth by the Tories after 14 years of austerity… as time goes on, the anger at the government will grow and some have said that this welfare restructure will be Keir Starmer’s Poll tax.”
What of the new package being put forward by the Government?
As leading campaigner on this issue Richard Burgon MP has put it today, “At best, these concessions make a terrible bill slightly less bad. But the bill still represents a devastating attack on disabled people. It still strips billions in support from those who need it most, still forces huge numbers into poverty, and still undermines the dignity and independence of disabled people. As an example of just how cruel these cuts still are, MPs will be asked to vote on Tuesday for a bill that will take away essential support from disabled people who will need help with basic daily tasks such as cutting up food, washing themselves or using the toilet.”
If MPs vote through these measures, nearly half a million disabled people will lose their PIPs between the end of 2026 and 2030, losing on average £4,500 per annum. – about £100 a week. Additionally, cuts to the UC health component mean three-quarters of a million new claimants will be put on a lower rate – being left £3,000 a year worse off.
The Government then are on weak ground here and elsewhere. We on the Left now need to keep the pressure on to not only defeat the Government on not only this area, but other key aspects of their austerity agenda, such as the maintenance of the two-child benefit cap.
But campaigning on these issues in themselves is not enough – we must put forward the argument that there is an urgent need to go further and be clear that social security should be higher, and universal, in order to end poverty.
We also need to vigorously campaign for ‘Welfare Not Warfare,’ and have already seen groups such as Disabled People Against the Cuts firmly oppose Keir Starmer’s announcement of the ‘biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War.
Now 5% of GDP is set to be spent on the war drive, which is the one area where austerity doesn’t apply.
Defeating the Government on any of these fronts will not be easy. It’s absolutely clear Starmer et al. are ideologically committed to travelling further down the road of neo-liberalism, cuts and privatisation – meaning ever-greater misery for millions.
Furthermore, this work must be part of the Left putting forward an overarching, transformative alternative economic strategy that can meet the scale of the crises we face, including the deepening cost-of-living emergency.
Whilst united fronts can, and must, be built on individual campaigns against cuts and around individual alternative policies, putting forward a coherent alternative as a whole is essential.
Based on taking on the corporate profiteers head on and ending the failed policies of austerity for good, such an agenda means expanding public ownership and control; investment not cuts; welfare not warfare; taxing wealth; universal public services, welfare and social security; and a green revolution for people and planet.
In each of these areas, socialist solutions to the crisis not only already have great public support but have the potential to receive much more support.
This then is the time for the Left to pair a clear, transformative alternative economic strategy with the building of movements all over the country saying that people must come before profits – and public need before corporate greed.
- The Red Weekly Column will appear each Monday on Labour Outlook from one of our regular socialist contributors.
- If you support Labour Outlook’s work amplifying the voices of left movements and struggles here and internationally, please consider becoming a supporter on Patreon.
