… and the Tories one-up them

Thomas Butler, Liverpool Socialist Party

While Andy Burnham decreed that Britain had taken a wrong turn under Thatcherism during his speech at Labour conference, secretary of state for work and pensions Pat McFadden declared a “moral crusade” on the ‘need’ to cut unemployment and disability benefits for young people.

Benefit cuts are posed across the board. The health element of Universal Credit is being considered for removal and Personal Independence Payments are being ‘overhauled’ – code for cuts. Reading this, it might sound like Keir Starmer had never left office! The Starmer government had been forced to U-turn on multiple attempts to slash benefits, such as the vicious proposed £5 billion cuts to disability benefits and maintaining the cruel two-child benefit cap.

It is clear ministers are hoping to lay the ground for more benefit cuts. For all they say they are boosting support to help young people find work, they are still making young people’s lives worse through no fault of their own when the jobs aren’t there. The bills and rent still need paying! Young people deserve support to live comfortably and not worry about going without as they search for work.

The Conservatives have been singing from the same hymn sheet – but louder. Kemi Badenoch has promised to cut Universal Credit for those who have not paid enough national insurance after a small period, to restrict how claimants spend their money to allow only the bare basics, and to totally block young people from claiming any Universal Credit up to the age of 25. It would instead be replaced with a ‘get to work’ scheme which would see financial support cut if young people ‘failed’ to get a job. Badenoch says she’ll stop young people going straight from education to claiming benefits. Thousands of young people today experience applying for hundreds of jobs and never hearing back from any one of them – it begs the question of where the fundamental issue lies: the jobseekers or the so-called super- rich ‘job creators’. The Tories remain a party representing big businesses’ naked interests – attacking our living standards to protect the profits of a few.

It comes as no surprise that, despite all the talk about hope and change, Labour continues an offensive on welfare. Pat McFadden was responsible for the cutting of over 2,000 Cabinet Office jobs a year ago and supported the 2016 leadership coup attempt to oust Jeremy Corbyn, leader at the time. He sits alongside the likes of fellow pro-capitalist politicians like Wes Streeting, John Healey, Shabana Mahmood and the rest in Burnham’s government. Young working-class people don’t need more of the same pro-big business politicians that served under Starmer’s failed government, we need a mass political voice that stands up for working-class interests first and foremost. An alternative to the Labour Party: a mass workers’ party with a genuine socialist programme which fights for the resources we need to thrive, not cuts at the behest of the bosses.