Joint Statement from left leaning politicians criticising the new Budget.
Labour’s first budget punishes the “working people” they claim to support. Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves promised to deliver real change to the electorate, after 14 years of Tory rule. This week, they have broken that promise. This budget is austerity by another name.
While we welcome the government’s decision to invest in school and hospital buildings, it is extremely disappointing that these investments have been undermined by a swathe of public sector cuts, cruel attacks on the worst off, and a dogmatic refusal to redistribute wealth and power. These are not “tough choices” for government ministers, but for ordinary people who are forced to choose between heating their home and putting food on the table.
Labour is raising defence expenditure to 2.5% of GDP while telling us there is no money to lift 250,000 children out of poverty. This is a lie. There is plenty of money – it’s just in the wrong hands. The richest 1% in the UK hold more wealth than 70% of Britons. By refusing to impose a wealth tax, this government has chosen to force vulnerable communities to pay the price for years of economic failure, instead of making the richest pay their fair share. Labour’s first budget shows us whose side they’re on.
Years of austerity and privatisation have decimated our public services and pushed millions into poverty, disproportionately impacting women, people of colour and disabled people. Making millions of children, working, retired and disabled people poorer damages our entire economy and stretches our public services. An austerity economy is a false economy.
We, along with nearly 100 progressive Independent and Green politicians across the country, are calling on the Labour government to: 1) introduce wealth taxes; 2) abolish the two-child benefit cap and stop attacking welfare recipients; 3) reverse cuts to winter fuel; 4) restore the £2 bus cap; and 5) invest in a Green New Deal.
We refuse to believe that child poverty, mass hunger and homelessness are inevitable in the sixth largest economy in the world. A progressive movement is growing up and down the country, demanding a real alternative to this race to the bottom between Labour and the Tories, which has seen the new government perpetuate decades of austerity and rampant corporate greed.
The Tories’ collapse allowed Labour to come to power with the lowest vote share ever won by any single-party majority government. Labour haemorrhaging votes to progressive independents and Greens in their heartlands should be a lesson to this government: you are wrong to believe that progressive voters have nowhere else to go. Our movement is growing every day – and you ignore the demand for a real alternative at your peril.
– Jeremy Corbyn MP Independent, Carla Denyer MP Green party co-leader, Adrian Ramsay MP Green party co-leader, Sian Berry MP Green party, Ben Lake MP Plaid Cymru, Ann Davies MP Plaid Cymru, Liz Saville Roberts MP Plaid Cymru, Llinos Medi MP Plaid Cymru, Zack Polanski Green party deputy leader and London assembly member, Leanne Mohamad Independent candidate for Ilford North, Jamie Driscoll Former North of Tyne mayor, Andrew Feinstein Former ANC MP and Independent candidate for Holborn and St Pancras, Leanne Wood Former leader, Plaid Cymru, Beth Winter Former Labour MP for Cynon Valley, Hilary Schan Chair, We Deserve Better and Independent councillor in Worthing, Anthony Slaughter Wales Green party leader
Signatories
Signed,
Jeremy Corbyn MP, independent
Carla Denyer MP, Green Party Co-Leader
Adrian Ramsay MP, Green Party Co-Leader
Sian Berry MP, Green Party Leanne Wood, former leader of Plaid Cymru
Liz Saville Roberts MP, Plaid Cymru
Ben Lake MP, Plaid Cymru
Llinos Medi MP, Plaid Cymru
Ann Davies MP, Plaid Cymru
Zack Polanski, Green Party Deputy Leader and London Assembly Member
Leanne Mohamad, Independent candidate for Ilford North
Jamie Driscoll, Leader of Majority and Independent former North of Tyne Mayor
Andrew Feinstein, former ANC MP and independent candidate for Holborn & St Pancras
Beth Winter, former Labour MP for Cynon Valley
Cllr Hilary Schan, Chair of We Deserve Better and independent councillor, Worthing Borough Council
Anthony Slaughter, Wales Green Party Leader
Zoë Garbett, Green London Assembly Member and councillor, Hackney Council
Caroline Russell, Green London Assembly Member and councillor, Islington Council
Cllr Amna Abdullatif, independent, Manchester City Council
Cllr Carl Walker, independent, Worthing Borough Council
Cllr Suleman Khonat, independent, Blackburn Council
Cllr Salim Sidat MBE, independent, Blackburn Council
Cllr Mustafa Desai, independent, Blackburn Council
Cllr Muntazir Patel, independent, Blackburn Council
Cllr Salma Patel, independent, Blackburn Council
Cllr Sajid Ali, independent, Blackburn Council
Cllr Terry Mahmood, independent, Blackburn Council
Cllr Imran Ahmed, independent, Blackburn Council
Cllr Rana Gulistan, independent, Blackburn Council
Cllr Mohamed Kapadia, independent, Blackburn Council
Cllr Iqbal Masters, independent, Blackburn Council
Cllr Waqar Hussain, independent, Blackburn Council
Cllr Ammar Anwar, independent, Kirklees Council
Cllr Tanisha Bramwell, independent, Kirklees Council
Cllr Imran S Safdar, independent, Kirklees Council
Cllr Emma Dent Coad, independent, Kensington and Chelsea Council
Cllr Yvonne Tennant, independent, Pendle Borough Council
Cllr Chris Davies, Green Party, South Tyneside Council
Cllr Holly Wadell, independent, Northumberland County Council
Cllr Benali Hamdache, Green Party, Islington Council
Cllr Jonathan Elmer, Green Party, Durham County Council.
Cllr Margaret Howard, independent, Worthing Borough Council
Cllr Claire Hunt, Green Party, Worthing Borough Council
Cllr Ian Davey, Green Party, Worthing Borough Council
Cllr Penny Wrout, independent, Hackney Council
Cllr Claudia Turbet-Delof, independent, Hackney Council
Cllr Fliss Premru, independent, Hackney Council
Cllr Alexi Dimond, Green Party, Sheffield Council
Cllr Nick Hartley, Green Party, Newcastle City Council
Cllr Mary Murphy, independent, Northumberland County Council
Cllr Ray Sutton, independent, North West Leicestershire Council
Cllr Sophia Naqvi, independent, Newham Council
Cllr Mehmood Mirza, independent, Newham Council
Cllr Zubair Gulamussen, independent, Newham Council
Cllr Nathanial Higgins, Green Party, Newham Council
Cllr Russell Whiting, independent, Gedling Borough Council
Cllr Dr Hosnieh Djafari-Marbini, independent, Oxford Council
Cllr Scott Ainslie, Green Party, Lambeth Council
Cllr Sean Halsall, independent, Sefton Council
Cllr Asima Shaikh, independent, Islington Council
Cllr Ilkay Cindi-Oner, independent, Islington Council
Cllr Phil Graham, independent, Islington Council
Cllr Matt Nathan, independent, Islington Council
Cllr Ani Stafford-Townsend, Green Party, Bristol City Council
Cllr Ria Patel, Green Party, Croydon Council
Cllr Khaled Musharraf, Green Party, Newcastle City Council
Cllr James Crawford, Green Party, Bristol City Council
Cllr Liam Davis, Green Party, Hackney Council
Cllr Kerry Picket, Green Party, Brighton & Hove City Council
Cllr Ernestas Jegorovas- Armstrong, Green Party, Islington Council
Cllr Alastair Binnie-Lubbock, Green Party, Hackney Council
Cllr Ben Foley, Green Party, Bedford Borough Council
Cllr Habib Rahman, independent, Newcastle City Council
Cllr Alan Gibbons, independent, Liverpool City Council
Cllr Sam Gorst, independent, Liverpool City Council
Cllr Lucy Williams, independent, Liverpool City Council
Cllr Karen Davis, independent, Norwich City Council
Cllr Cate Oliver, independent, Norwich City Council
Cllr Pete Kennedy, Green Party, Stroud District Council
Cllr Paul Barnett, independent, Hastings Borough Council
Cllr Andy Batsford, independent, Hastings Borough Council
Cllr John Cannan, independent, Hastings Borough Council
Cllr Nigel Sinden, independent, Hastings Borough Council
Cllr Mike Turner, independent, Hastings Borough Council
Cllr Simon Willis, independent, Hastings Borough Council
Cllr Hau-Yu Tam, independent, Lewisham Council
Cllr Chloë Goldsmith, Green Party, Brighton & Hove City Council
Cllr Raphael Hill, Green Party, Brighton & Hove City Council
Cllr Lotte Collett, independent, Haringey Council
Cllr Jane McCoid, independent, Gateshead Council