By Claire Laker-Mansfield, Socialist Alternative Political Committee
The average person in Britain is today an estimated £11,000-a-year worse off than they would have been had pre-2008 economic trends continued. This figure underlines the enormous reduction in living standards that has been inflicted on the majority under the austerity regime. The financial crash which took place under the last Labour government ushered in a new era of decline and stagnation. But this was not a decline that impacted everyone. Profits continued to soar. The rich broke new records for personal wealth. Meanwhile for tens of millions, the last ten years have required gruelling readjustments. Poverty has skyrocketed. As one crisis of the system has compounded another, working-class people, again and again, have paid with their livelihoods and even their lives.
Hearing Rachel Reeves declare that there will be “no return to austerity”, when delivering her budget, will have therefore been a relief for millions. But while her plan does mark a departure from years of unmitigated Tory slash-and-burn, it stops well short of the scale of change needed to begin meaningfully reversing the last 15 years of decline. Already facing incredible unpopularity, Starmer’s government desperately needed to escape the self-imposed straight-jacket of their Tory-inspired “fiscal rules”.
By fiddling the sums, and making relatively small adjustments to taxes primarily paid by the wealthy, they created the wiggle room needed for some increases in funding for the NHS and schools, among other things. Any improvement on today’s dire situation is surely welcome. But the amounts pledged, which may sound big on paper, are ultimately inadequate in the face of such staggeringly large problems across the NHS and other public services. It amounts to an overall increase in public spending of just 1.7%.
Meanwhile, arguably the cruellest and most devastating legacy of the Tory government – its tearing up of the welfare safety net – was not just left unreversed, it was doubled down on. Reeves dedicated a substantial chunk of her speech to talking about new measures for reducing ‘fraud’ in the benefits system. This was a dog-whistle, designed to conjure up images of scrounging welfare cheats living lavish lifestyles while gaming the system. This is a million miles away from the lived reality of 99.99% of those who claim benefits. It is rhetoric that scapegoats the poorest in society for problems created by the richest. And it’s not just rhetoric. Opposing the two-child benefit cap is an expellable offence for Starmer – as he proved when he removed the whip from seven Labour lefts.
These were far from the only sins of omission. With sewage being pumped into our rivers and seas daily, concrete and decisive action – taking the water companies into public ownership – would have been tremendously popular. Energy and mail could have been next on the list – a no brainer when you consider the Post Office is currently mired in scandal, and millions are facing a winter of fuel poverty.
Reversing their own austerity measures by restoring winter fuel payments for the elderly could have helped mitigate some of the damage they have already done. Instead, they went for more mean, with a whopping 50% increase in the cap on bus fares. But more money was made available to fund war – with an extra £2.9 billion for the MOD, presumably so Britain can continue to cosy up to the US in the imperialist bloc conflict – even while the Israeli regime’s genocidal onslaught continues.
This budget has highlighted again the desperate need for a political alternative. Half measures that leave wealth concentrated in the hands of a tiny few will not be sufficient to improve life for the majority. They will not be enough to cut across the likes of Farage, who cynically feed off feelings of disenfranchisement and discontent. A new left party, rooted in struggle, can offer an antidote to this despair. A socialist programme – based on public ownership and democratic planning, can offer a way forward to dramatically raising the living standards of the vast majority while protecting the planet. If you agree, join us.
