This week's budget is further proof that this Tory-led government are completely out of touch with the reality of people’s lives in Cameron’s Britain. There is a major cost of living crisis in this country. Since David Cameron became Prime Minister in 2010 wages are down by £1,600 and energy bills are soaring – up by £300 since the election.
Above: Official Conservative Party Advert announcing their budget
This week's budget is further proof that this Tory-led government are completely out of touch with the reality of people’s lives in Cameron’s Britain. There is a major cost of living crisis in this country. Since David Cameron became Prime Minister in 2010 wages are down by £1,600 and energy bills are soaring – up by £300 since the election. The Office for Budgetary Responsibility say that people will be worse off in 2015 than they were in 2010. All of this is the result of a series of eye watering cuts that have stifled growth and caused the economy to flat-line for years.
The Tories like to talk up the increases in the personal allowance for income tax, desperately wanting us to forget about the 24 tax rises they’ve made – including a regressive VAT hike and the ‘granny tax’. It’s the same old Tory con – give with one hand, and take away much more with the other.
We’re seeing the slowest economic recovery for 100 years. George Osborne said, in 2010, that the economy would have grown by 8.4% by now. In actual fact, he’s only delivered 3.8% growth with his failed austerity measures. Compare that with the USA – 7.8%; or Germany with 4.8%. The UK economy is 1.4% below its pre-crisis peak. Again, contrast that with the USA – whose economy is 6.2% above.
What would Labour do? We’d start by
freezing energy bills until 2017 and fixing the broken energy market. Using a tax on bank bonuses, we’d put the young back to work with a guaranteed job the young unemployed have to take. We’d ease the pressure on families by expanding free childcare to 25 hours a week for working parents with 3 and 4 year olds. We’d cut taxes for 24 million working people on low and middle incomes with a lower 10p starting rate of income tax. Small companies would see a business rate cut, and we’d plan to build 200,000 new homes a year by 2020.
