Another month and yet another crisis in our country caused by the Conservatives, an economic one, made in Downing Street and paid for by working people.
It has been exactly one month since Liz Truss was officially given permission to form a Government and it has possibly been one of the most eventful months in modern British history.
We said goodbye to Britain’s longest reigning monarch. Her Majesty the Queen worked tirelessly for 70 years to serve the people of our country and I would like to express my unwavering thanks and gratitude to her for that service. Truly a remarkable woman who showed us all her warmth and her humour throughout her years.
Following a national period of mourning, we returned to politics and saw the latest edition of Conservative Governments drastically change course, admitting along the way, to their neglect of the country over the last 12 years through a period of low growth. Their plan to fix the problems they’ve caused is huge amounts of borrowing and mass tax cuts for the wealthiest, in the hope that some of this trickles down to working people. The new Chancellor took to the dispatch box to announce a series of fiscal policies which benefit those most well off in society. What has followed has been widespread chaos.
Markets have crashed, key interventions have been needed from the Bank of England to perverse pension pots, The International Monetary Fund (IMF) have encouraged the Government to look again at their fiscal plans and we have seen the pound fall to an all time low against the US dollar.
What the Chancellor described in his speech to the Tory party conference this week as ‘a little turbulence over the past 10 days’ is a huge economic body-blow to working people that will mean higher prices for products and soaring mortgages. The Chancellor has damaged the UK’s reputation on a global stage and left us all worse off.
The Tories have destroyed their economic credibility and lost the trust of the British people, a Labour Government would step in to fix the litany of issues that this Government has created. Labour is the party of fiscal responsibility and social justice.
We will not waver in our commitment to making sure our economy is on stable and secure ground, and that every pound of taxpayers’ money is treated with respect.
At our recent party conference, we announced a series of policies, all costed that will give Britain its hope and future back.
We will tackle the energy crisis, turning the UK in to a clean energy superpower by committing to net-zero by 2030. We announced the creation of Great British Energy, a publicly owned energy company to tackle our energy security and produce more at home by utilising renewables.
We called for an end to the failures on our railways, bringing rail back under national control, we committed to a real plan for levelling up, cutting business rates to rebuild our high streets. We would deliver a landmark shift in skills and training to drive growth and equip our communities for the future. We would also improve our education system, offering free school meals to every child in England.
We have set an ambitious target to help get 1.5 million more people on the housing ladder, along with looking at a new private renter’s charter, to make renting fairer, more secure and more affordable, through a higher quality and properly regulated private rented sector.
We would fix the problems in our NHS, employ more doctors and nurses, creating lower waiting times and introduce a National Care Service that fixes our long term problems around social care.
Having only been Prime Minister for a month, Liz Truss has already put the country on a path in which many will be worse off, she has created a economic crisis which has been made in Downing Street, and is being paid for by the British people.
For my constituents in Blaydon, and for everyone in the North East the answer is clear, only a Labour Government can give Britain the fresh start it needs and only Labour can give our country its hope and future back.
