You may have seen George Osborne deliver his Budget last month. But while the Conservatives continue to trumpet about the success of their long-term economic plan, many people I speak to in Northfield just aren’t feeling a recovery at all.
On 16 March I went on BBC Sunday Politics West Midlands to explain why the Chancellor is out of touch with the cost of living crisis facing local people. For many years, when the economy grew, most people got better off with it. But for the first time in living memory working people will be worse off – an average £1,600 a year – at the end of a parliament than at the start. This Government have quite simply failed millions of ordinary people.
There is another choice. Labour is determined to get the deficit down in a fair way, and ensure we can earn our way to higher living standards for the future. For example, a Labour budget would have reversed this government’s tax cut for millionaires, and introduced a lower 10p starting rate of tax for 24 million people on low and middle incomes. We would also provide 25 hours of free childcare to support families facing a huge squeeze on their time and their pockets.
The Conservatives say the cost of living crisis doesn’t exist, but everybody else is living through it every day. Sadly, the Chancellor – a beneficiary of the millionaires’ tax cut, just like his friends in the city – didn’t mention this when he opened his red box.
