Daniel Forrest, Teesside Socialist Party
Many years ago, the idea of a welfare system ‘from the cradle to the grave’ was widely accepted and championed by the Labour Party. Keir Starmer’s actions as head of the Labour government have confirmed again that this no longer exists.
Starmer has closed his eyes to the demands from trade unionists and activists to remove the punishing two-child benefit cap. Removing the cap would lift hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty and take some pressure off of the shoulders of parents being ground down by the cost-of-living crisis.
Not only that but Starmer’s government is also threatening to put the axe to disabled people’s benefits. As someone who has been through the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) process, I know how gruelling it is to receive the benefits which I am entitled to due to a lifelong disability. Many people who have been through what can be a humiliating process will be rightly angry with a government which does not see their needs as something to be supported, rather seeing them as a burden.
Money for wars
Starmer and his cronies plead poverty when it comes to supporting disabled people or removing a punishing benefit cap, but his generosity knows no bounds when it comes to prolonging the slaughter of workers and young people in war. Ask yourself this, what would you rather we fund, welfare or warfare?
Some Labour MPs will express how saddened they are about the cuts, and others, seeing Labour’s dire position in the polls and wanting to make sure they keep their cushy seats, may even vote or abstain against the cuts. In many of their constituencies, the number of people affected is greater than their current majorities.
MPs’ cushy salaries
While Labour MPs will preach to us that the finances are tight and working-class people have to make sacrifices, they’re getting paid over £90K a year. When they have a wage like that, with all of their expenses paid (without even mentioning the ‘gifts’ they receive, which often amount to legalised bribery), how would they know the impact of policies like cutting PIP or the two-child benefit cap?
Ultimately, working-class people can’t have any faith in the ‘Labour’ Party, that coven of liars and cowards in parliament do not deserve our support. We need a new mass workers’ party to fight for our rights, services and jobs. A party rooted in the trade unions would not only be able to take on the deceitful Labour Party, but also the divisive rhetoric pushed by Reform.
If you want to fight for a benefits system people can live on, decent jobs with decent pay, and an end to the profit-driven capitalist system where a few at the top get filthy rich at our expense, then your place is in the Socialist Party and in the fight for a fairer society.
