Spending review: The working class should not be made to pay for this crisis 

By Claudia Webbe MP 

The government is frivolous when it comes to handling money out to Tory donors or private companies, but penny-pinching when it comes to bailing out communities, says CLAUDIA WEBBE

LAST week, the Chancellor made one of the most important Spending Review statements in recent years.

Due to the government’s negligent handling of the pandemic we are facing the worst of both worlds: the highest number of excess deaths in Europe, one of the worst Covid-19 death rates in the world, and our worst ever recession — which is nearly twice as severe as in comparable nations.

The 11.3 per cent slump in UK GDP forecast for this year will be even worse than the recession of 1921, when Britain’s economy shrank almost 10 per cent in the aftermath of the first world war and the Spanish flu epidemic.

It means 2020 will see the biggest economic contraction for over 300 years — since 1709, when the “Great Frost” ravaged Europe’s economies, creating food shortages as livestock froze.

This historical low point was not inevitable. At every step in this crisis — from initial herd immunity and lockdown delay, equipment shortages, care home neglect, testing delays, a corrupt and expensive overreliance on the private sector, and much more — the government has failed to adequately protect our communities.

Instead of using the November lockdown and people’s sacrifices wisely by fixing the failing test, trace and isolate system, they’ve been bickering among themselves over who has what job in No 10.

A leaked Cabinet Office briefing admitted that Britain faces an increased likelihood of “systemic economic crisis” as we exit the European Union in the middle of a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

It is surprising and risky that the government is reducing restrictions, especially when a vaccine is on the horizon.

The pre-lockdown tier system failed as it did not do enough to contain the virus, it confused the public and too many places and businesses were left with insufficient support.

It is crucial that, during this next stage, the government provides adequate support for workers, businesses and indeed everyone in our community — which it has so far failed to do.

It is vital that everyone in our community has the material means to self-isolate.

The Conservatives’ irresponsible choices have wasted and mismanaged billions, led to our country experiencing the worst downturn in the G7 and created a jobs crisis.

The Chancellor’s delay in offering certainty on employment support has cost jobs. There were a record 314,000 redundancies between July and September 2020, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Since the start of the crisis the UK has lost over a million jobs. The Prime Minister and his government talk a good game.

But they haven’t delivered on their promises — and regional inequality has got worse on their watch.

Frankly, we cannot trust them when they say that austerity is over.

This crisis has shown that the people who really matter and keep our society ticking are not billionaires and the super-rich, but nurses, carers, cleaners, checkout attendants and many more essential front-line workers.

The government clapped for key workers — but now it has frozen their pay, and it is looking to scrap planned minimum wage increases for the private sector.

That will hit people’s pockets and pull spending out of our small businesses and high streets when many are already on their knees, choking off the recovery.

A pay freeze will hit many of the front-line workers who contributed to the coronavirus relief effort and who will be essential to the recovery, including firefighters, hospital porters and teaching assistants.

Many social care workers, seven in 10 of whom earn less than £10 an hour, are also in the public sector and would be hit by a freeze.

While it is welcome that doctors and nurses will receive a thoroughly deserved pay rise, these divide-and-rule tactics are straight out of the Conservative playbook.

We must oppose these attempts to pit sections of the working class against each other.

Because by standing together, united, there is nothing that we cannot accomplish.

Jobs that, before this crisis, were wrongly decried by the government as low-skilled are now rightly recognised by the public as essential.

This must be reflected with a significant restructuring of our economy along the lines of justice, with pay rises for those who we clearly cannot live without.

Throughout this pandemic, the government has given billions to private companies in shady deals that have led to accusations of cronyism and corruption.

This is a government that is frivolous when it comes to handing public money out to Tory donors or private companies, but penny-pinching when it comes to bailing out communities across the country.

As a former empire, Britain has a unique responsibility to ensure that we honour our commitments across the world.

It is vital for us to consider the impact of Britain’s colonial legacy on modern-day global insecurity.

It is therefore shameful that the government is cutting development funding at a time of global crisis, especially at the same time they announced an unprecedented peacetime increase in military spending.

Turning their backs on the world’s poorest is a political choice the government has made, not a political necessity.

Over the last decade, Conservative governments have implemented an ideologically driven programme that has left our public services weakened, vulnerable and underfunded; which has escalated insecurity at work; and which has brought about a long and continuing squeeze on living standards.

The lessons from the 2008 financial crash are clear. The 99 per cent must never again be forced to bailout the super-rich.

During the costly neoliberal project of the last half-century, conservatives have so successfully torn apart our social safety net and transferred the wealth that workers create to the super-rich, that they are now petrified this crisis will usher in a fairer economic settlement.

Having taken extraordinary action to prevent economic collapse, the Tories are terrified that the British public will become accustomed to what should be a basic level of state support.

That’s why the government is already introducing a disastrous privatisation agenda in response the coronavirus crisis.

Instead of yet more austerity, we desperately need a recognition that, in our country of deep and unequal wealth, the top 1 per cent should be asked to contribute a little bit more, including through increased taxes on corporate profits.

Claudia Webbe MP is the member of Parliament for Leicester East. You can follow her at www.facebook.com/claudiaforLE and twitter.com/ClaudiaWebbe