Sam Smithson, Waltham Forest Socialist Party
Austerity imposed by Keir Starmer’s Labour will see already beleaguered public services worsening for us all. A cut of 5% across all departments has been demanded by Chancellor Rachel Reeves. Despite claims by the government that cuts will lead to a more “agile and modern state,” the real consequences of this attack will result in increased waiting times for essential government services, such as the issuing of passports and the filing of tax returns. Now the government has suggested that senior civil servants must become personally responsible for the drive to find so-called efficiencies within the budgets they manage, with the threat of job losses if they don’t make enough cuts.
In December, a government source stated that the proposed cuts could result in up to 10,000 jobs being lost. Pressures such as this will mean workers in the civil service will be asked to work harder for less, including those who work in minimum-wage roles.
Cuts for us, profits for the bosses
The cost of private sector consultants to the government has rocketed to a massive £1 billion paid since the general election, a January report found. This flies in the face of any ‘cost-saving’ measures demanded. Labour promised in the general election to halve the cost of spending on consultants to prioritise frontline services. As funding is stripped from the public sector, the government chooses to use large corporations to prop up failing departments instead of seeking to properly invest in services to benefit us all. Once again, it is big business lining their pockets in a time of austerity, with the taxpayer being left to pick up the bill.
The Labour Party is acting in the interests of their crony capitalist friends and donors, who make massive profits year on year from privatised services. It shows the desperate need for a socialist programme that would bring services back in-house and remove the profit motive, running them for the people who use them rather than the bosses who profit off them.
