Commenting on this weeks government budget, Terry Ledlie, Chair of Yeovil Constituency Labour Party said: “The budget promises jam tomorrow but only delivers hard cheese for the next twelve months. This is the last gasp of a government that is well-past its sell by date. Thirteen years of Conservative and Coalition governments have left us with a weak economy, growing poverty, broken public services and falling real pay. Only a change of government can get us back to prosperity and fairness.” Meanwhile Bridgwater Labour economic spokesman Cllr Mick Lerry called it a “Handout for the rich while the workers are striking for fairer pay!”
Terry Ledlie (Yeovil Labour) commented “The cost- of- living crisis continues to squeeze families hard. With wages lagging inflation, real spending power has fallen by 3.9 per cent in the past year alone. The average wage will now buy less than it did in 2010. This is a long way from Labour’s basic principle of making sure that work makes us better off. When it comes to priorities, the government should have chosen to help working people by increasing the basic income tax threshold but chose instead to make a tax cut for the pensions of the richest one per cent of employees. They also missed the opportunity to close the loopholes in taxing the windfall profits of the energy companies, choosing to let them keep their unearned profits rather than using the money to help ordinary people. These failures starkly show that the Tories still favour the wealthy few over the hard- working majority.”
Economy in Decline
Cllr Mick Lerry (Bridgwater Labour) said: “Jeremy Hunt started off his budget statement hinting that the economy is in good shape, when the Office for Budget Responsibility made it quite clear that the economy is in decline. Growth is down but the Chancellor ignores the facts. Again the Chancellor stated that inflation is falling; but, he did not mention that this was due to people working for less money, spending less in bringing inflation down. The Chancellor admitted that there would be low growth for the next three years. Childcare support, while being welcomed is too slow in delivery for working parents. There is no extra funding for the wrap around child care at schools. Then the Chancellor forgot to mention a tax cut for the one percent in pension allowance, that will allow the high paid to put more in their pension, while the majority of workers are striking for fair pay rises. There is no industrial strategy to overcome the decline in growth, many people will know that the future is still bleak and energy prices too high”.
“ Only Labour will get rid of the “sticking plaster politics” of the Tory party. Working people deserve better and their lives will improve under Labour. The economy is not working for the people now and they are turning to Labour”