22 November 2023 , 17:22
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This Autumn Statement is not a plan for rebuilding Britain. It’s a plan for levelling the country down.
At a time when our schools and hospitals are crumbling the Chancellor has confirmed another round of brutal spending cuts to public services. Be in no doubt – if the Tories win the next election, even more austerity is on the way.
This Cabinet of millionaires is happy for our kids to be taught in portable cabins and for our loved ones to be treated on trolleys. They are happy for local council services to be driven into the ground.
They are happy for sewage to be pumped into rivers and for trains and buses to not run on time. The world looks very different from a private jet.
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak has branded the Autumn Statement a 'disgrace' (PA)The Conservatives mustn’t be allowed to get away with this. Today’s Autumn Statement was a disgrace. Cutting national insurance is not going to make up for 13 years of continued economic failure.
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It won’t stop millions of kids growing up below the breadline. And it won’t help people get a GP appointment. The facts remain the same. The Tories have presided over the worst period for growth and wages in recent history.
Real wages – pay adjusted for inflation – won’t recover to their 2008 level until 2028. That’s two decades of lost living standards. Yes – raising the minimum wage is badly needed. But let’s not forget this is a government that is responsible for record levels of in-work poverty and for an explosion in low-paid, insecure work.
A government that has refused – in the wake of the P&O Ferries scandal – to strengthen workers’ rights and protect people from being treated like disposable labour. Mirror readers won’t be fooled.
The Conservatives have broken Britain. They cannot be trusted to fix it.
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