Fully fund public services

Gareth Bromhall, Swansea and South West Wales Socialist Party

Keir Starmer’s Labour government has started its reign with promises of “tough decisions”, also known as cuts.

14 years of austerity made the Tories universally unpopular, they were smashed in the general election. But the Labour victory was shallow, just 5% of those who voted for them did so because they supported their policies.

Labour chancellor Rachel Reeves has raised the spectre of a £22 billion black hole in the public finances. That is the excuse for cuts to new hospital builds, rail and road investment, and pensioners’ winter fuel payments. She also scrapped the planned cap on the amount someone can pay for adult social care. Cuts across government departments targeting “waste” are included too. This is a new round of austerity.

Reeves’s cuts come just days after the government voted against scrapping the two-child benefit cap – one of the cruellest Tory reforms. 1.6 million children live in households where benefits are restricted simply by the number of siblings they have.

The fact that, despite the ‘black hole’, Rachel Reeves has agreed to public sector pay rises in-line with pay review body recommendations is absolutely a result of the strike wave of the last two years, and Labour’s fear that its government will face more of the same. But that still can’t be ruled out.

It’s clear the junior doctors got more because the government judged that is what was needed to stop them striking. Labour’s pay offers in the rest of the public sector don’t start to address restoring pay after a decade of real-terms cuts, for instance bands 3-6 in the NHS are currently between 25 -29% behind their 2010 wage in real terms, and the extra pay is not fully funded.

People just aren’t prepared to accept a continuation of Tory austerity.

Our quality of life has been driven down while the rich just get richer. The richest 100 individuals in the UK increased their wealth by £40 billion in the last year alone.

The money is there! There is enough to fund our services, restore our wages and build the infrastructure needed for a 21st century society. The issue is that it’s in the wrong hands, hoarded by the capitalist class whilst we are made to pay for their crisis.

The Tories are attacking Labour saying they have plans for autumn tax increases. We say tax the super-rich, not workers. But don’t leave it there. Let’s nationalise utilities, transport, infrastructure and the commanding heights of the economy – the top 150 companies that hold so much of the wealth. Under the democratic control and management of the working class, that wealth and resources could be put to good use to meet the needs of all – a decent pay rise, fully funded services, an end to poverty, and more.

Don’t accept the money’s not there. Join the Socialist Party to fight back!