So much for “change”. In the year-and-a-half Labour have been in Government, barely a day has gone by without some bad news. I have reviewed the past year, and in the spirit of the season, I have stuck to just 12 Labour fails…
12. Twelve Months of Chaos: 2025 began with the fallout of Labour’s 2024 Budget – increased costs for families, individuals and even local councils. Remember the betrayal older people felt when Labour took away their Winter Fuel payments. Then we endured months of speculation ahead of Rachel Reeves’ “will they or won’t they” Budget, leaks and U-Turns throwing markets into turmoil and finally increasing our tax burden to an all-time high.
11. Government borrowing is up by £11 billion. It’s forecast to increase every year to 2028-29 according to the Office for Budget Responsibility. This is a direct result of Labour failing to control public spending and squandering our taxes.
10. Ten Ministerial resignations in 2025: including an anti-corruption minister resigning over corruption, and the Housing Secretary (and Deputy Prime Minister) Angela Rayner resigning for underpaying stamp duty.
9. 93,000 NHS appointments have been lost to strikes since Labour gave doctors a massive pay increase. Labour’s manifesto said: “Too many patients have seen their treatment affected by strikes. Labour will reset relations with NHS staff”.
8. Tax increased by £8 billion because of the Chancellor freezing income tax thresholds in last month’s Budget. This is despite her admitting last year that freezing thresholds would breach Labour’s manifesto promises.
7. The UK currently has the fastest growing youth unemployment in the G7. We now have the worst ranking in PwC’s Youth Employment Index since records began.
6. Six million working-aged people are claiming benefits under Labour. The Government would rather that benefits pay better than working hard.
5. Just like the original five gold rings, five newly minted Liberal Democrat life peerages have been granted by Labour. No sooner had this shiny quintet been announced than Liberal Democrat parliamentarians began voting with Labour on issues they previously opposed.
4. We heard in November unemployment increased to 4.9%, thanks to Labour policies like hiking employers’ National Insurance, making it more expensive to hire people. This month unemployment rose again to 5.1%.
3. Inflation remains high at 3.6%, higher than 2.5% when the Conservatives left office. The OECD has predicted the UK will have the highest rate of inflation among the G7. The Bank of England has linked this to last year’s Employers’ National Insurance increase.
2. Two tax raising Budgets under Labour. These were led by the same Chancellor and Prime Minister who stood on an election manifesto not to raise taxes.
1. One manifesto – not worth the paper it was written on. Labour broke promises on tax, broke their promise to replace the Royal Berkshire Hospital in this parliament, increased fuel bills rather than the £300 reduction they promised, reduced council funding … the list goes on.
P.S. – Amid all the doom and gloom, many of us at least look forward to getting together with families over the Christmas period. It’s also a time to remember those less fortunate, and people who will have to work over Christmas. Wherever you are and however you celebrate, I wish you a Happy Christmas and best wishes for the New Year.
By Cllr Pauline Jorgensen
