Lisa Nandy MP: Labour is on the people’s side

Under the Conservatives, Britain faces the worst cost of living crisis in a generation.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

Last Friday in his mini-budget the new Chancellor had an opportunity to set out how people and businesses could be supported through this national emergency and how our economy can grow in the future.

He failed miserably.

Instead, we got a tax cut for the wealthiest one per cent with the removal of the top rate of income tax, a rise in bankers’ bonuses and more than £50 billion piled onto the national debt every single year.

Wigan MP Lisa NandyWigan MP Lisa Nandy
Wigan MP Lisa Nandy
Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Independent analysis has found that under the Government’s plans someone earning £1m a year will be handed £55,000 while those on £20,000 will gain just £157 a year.

Scrapping the top rate of income tax is set to cost £2.3bn this year, more than has been spent by the Government’s Levelling Up Fund.

This represents a massive transfer of money from families in towns like Wigan and regions like the North West to the wealthiest people in the country who overwhelmingly live in London and the South East.

The reaction of the financial markets has been damning with the pound hitting a record low against the dollar.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

A weak pound makes imports of gas, oil and other goods more expensive increasing the pressure further on families and businesses.

The Government is gambling our money on a return to the “trickle-down economics” approach, an outdated idea which wrongly assumes that simply cutting taxes for the rich and slashing regulations will unleash growth.

But wealth doesn’t trickle down, it comes from the bottom up and from the talent and the effort of millions of ordinary working people.

These people are the real wealth creators and the foundation of our economy.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

This country needs a serious plan to get jobs and investment into every region and nation, money back into people’s pockets and locally driven growth.

Instead, the Government have handed more money to millionaires than to the whole of the North of England.

At Labour Party Conference in Liverpool this week we set out an alternative approach.

Labour will tilt the balance of power back towards the people and ensure that wealth and opportunity is spread across the whole country.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

In our first hundred days in office, we will end fire and rehire practices, repeal the anti-worker and anti-trade union laws and raise wages for the lowest paid.

Over the longer term we will invest to bring clean energy jobs to industrial and coastal towns across Britain, spreading wealth and helping us achieve our goal of seeing all the country’s energy generated from clean sources by 2030.

We will boost struggling high street businesses by abolishing the current system of business rates and replacing it with a fairer model.

And we will invest in our overstretched NHS services by bringing back the 45p top rate of income tax and investing the money generated in training 5,000 new health visitors, creating 10,000 new nursing placements, and doubling the number of medical school places.

It is time for a government that is on the people’s side and that government is a Labour government.