By Matt Rodda
We’re on our fourth chancellor of the exchequer and third prime minister of the year.
Last Thursday, we had the second financial statement in three months which we saw the biggest set of tax rises for a generation and a return to the 2010-era austerity style politics of the Conservative Party.
The difference is that after the last 12 years, families and pensioners are struggling with the enormous challenge of the cost of living crisis and our public services are on their knees.
The plans announced by the Chancellor means energy bills will rise to an average of £3000 a year in April 2023, social rents will go up by 7% and councils are will forced to raise council tax by 5% to make up for the shortfall they will have when their support from central government is cut.
This round of tax rises and service cuts follows the Conservatives disastrous mini budget under the last prime minister and chancellor.
While Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt would like us to believe that they are clearing up the mess they inherited, the reality is that the Government’s plans are the result of the long-term failure of the Conservative party since 2010.
During the last 12 years the economy has grown much more slowly than in other similar western countries and also much more slowly than it did in the period from 1997 to 2008.
The UK is now in recession and our economic growth is currently the lowest of all the G7 countries.
Ordinary hard working people who have already seen their rents and mortgages go up will now see their energy bills increase while their salaries are stretched further and further.
The only winners from this budget are the bankers whose huge bonuses have not been touched, the oil and gas giants who have made record profits and are escaping tax through loopholes, and the non-doms who live in the UK, but whom the Government refuses to ask to pay a fair level of tax.
I am glad that the Chancellor has bowed to the pressure put on him by Jon Ashworth and Labour MPs like me to protect the pension triple lock and to uprate support for the most vulnerable in line with inflation, but the Government should never have considered cutting pensions and benefits in the first place.
The Government should have followed Labour’s lead and expanded the windfall tax on excess profits of energy companies to cut bill by £1,000 a year, they should be reclaiming the billions lost in dodgy PPE contracts and they should be focussing on growing our economy through investment in education, in green energy and through scrapping business rates to help the high street and asking internet giants to pay a fairer rate of tax.
What we saw last week was a Conservative Government which is out of ideas and out of touch with local residents who are struggling because of the political choices made in Downing Street.
Sadly, each of us is now paying more as a result.
Matt Rodda is the MP for Reading East
