Conservative claims of being the “Workers Party” are far from reality

Last week, we saw at the Conservative Party Conference the Tories continually suggesting that they are now the party of the Centre Ground and are the "Workers Party". When I heard these claims I really didn't know whether to laugh or cry, their rhetoric is so far away from the reality of many working families over the last five years and the reality they will face over the next five.

Last week, we saw at the Conservative Party Conference the Tories continually suggesting that they are now the party of the Centre Ground and are the "Workers Party". When I heard these claims I really didn't know whether to laugh or cry, their rhetoric is so far away from the reality of many working families over the last five years and the reality they will face over the next five.

Firstly, let's look at look their claim to be making people better off in work. While they plan to increase the minimum wage to £9 an hour in 2020, in the meantime they are significantly cutting people's tax credits with three million families losing an average of £1300 a year from next April. How can this make workers on low incomes better off over the next five years?

Before these tax credit cuts even took place we have seen the Tories hammer working families on low incomes, including cuts to council-tax relief for low income working families, the increase in VAT which hits low income families hardest and cuts to schemes like the Future Jobs Fund that gave unemployed young people a job and the skills to move on to future employment. And who have we seen the Tories prioritise in taxation? Millionaires received a £100,000 a year tax cut on their earnings and the Tories have now withdrawn inheritance tax for all properties worth up to £1m. How can these policies be considered the centre ground or benefitting low income workers?

On housing, the Tories again claim to be in tune with working people's aspirations to home ownership. Yet what is the reality? In Swindon home ownership has been in decline over the last five years. According to economists this trend is only set to increase under this current government with more buy to let properties while our more young adults are further and further away from home ownership.

And then there's the Tories rhetoric on immigration and Europe. We heard the Conservative Party say that Britain's immigration system is broken and that they want to end the EU's freedom of movement of labour. Despite effectively criticising their own record on immigration, the reality is that in many sectors like the NHS and areas where we have skills shortages like engineering, we need immigrants for this country to run effectively. And with immigration the Tories are dangerously close to calling for Britain to pull out of the EU with all the implications that would have on jobs and the economy in Swindon.

So what have we learnt from the Tory Party Conference this week? I believe their claim to be a workers party and for families on low and middle incomes can be shown to be a nonsense through their prioritising of tax cuts for the wealthy few while cutting back on people's tax credits by thousands of pounds. And should they get even close to matching their actions with their rhetoric on the EU and immigration then sectors that are dependent on immigrants to run effectively, like the NHS, will decline and thousands of jobs in Swindon could be lost from our EU exit.

Cllr Jim Grant
Swindon Labour Group Leader