LeftLion columnist and MP for Nottingham East Nadia Whittome discusses our new government...
A week can be a long time in politics. On Monday 5 September, MPs returned to Parliament after summer recess. By Friday, we had a new Prime Minister, a whole new cabinet and a new monarch.
But let’s leave King Charles aside for a moment. In this month’s column, I wanted to focus on what we can expect from the recently-appointed Government.
There are various things Liz Truss is known for: be it her viral speech about cheese, or having been an ardent Remainer only to back a hard Brexit soon afterwards. But more than anything else in recent months, she has made headlines and raised eyebrows with her hardline economic policies.
During her leadership election, Truss presented herself as an heir to Thatcher, stating it’s “fair” to cut taxes for the rich while promising “no handouts” for everyone else. She pledged a clampdown on trade union rights - already among the most restricted in Europe - and a “bonfire” of “red tape” (read: workers’ rights and environmental protections). Having previously blamed Britain’s economic woes on workers lacking “graft”, she reportedly flaunted plans to scrap limits on working time.
If Truss’s first weeks as Prime Minister have shown anything, it’s that these were not just empty slogans, designed to appeal to the Tory base. The Government wasted no time in putting forward a programme of rewarding the wealthy few while punishing the many.
Meanwhile many part-time workers, already squeezed by rising prices, will see their benefits cut. Fresh attacks on trade unions threaten to keep wages down to protect profits
In his so-called “mini budget”, Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng announced the biggest tax cuts in 50 years, worth a not-so-mini total of £45 billion. The vast majority of those will go straight to high earners, including in the form of a lower tax rate for the top 1%. Turns out, the Government is not opposed to handouts - as long as they’re for the rich.
Bankers also had reasons to celebrate, as the Tories scrapped the cap on bonuses, introduced after 2008 to prevent another financial crash. Meanwhile many part-time workers, already squeezed by rising prices, will see their benefits cut. Fresh attacks on trade unions threaten to keep wages down to protect profits. And while average energy bills have been capped at £2,500 (more than double what they were last year), the remaining cost will be covered by future taxpayers - rather than energy companies, which are currently boasting record-breaking profits.
This kind of economics simply doesn’t work. Instead of boosting growth, it only fuels inequality. Money given to the super-rich doesn’t trickle down: it’s stored in savings accounts, or disappears in tax havens. At the same time, those who would put it back into the economy, see their incomes squeezed more and more.
We’ve had enough of the rich getting richer at the expense of the majority and future generations. This is the case I will be making in Parliament in the coming weeks and months: that there is an alternative
Equally concerning is the new Government’s attitude towards the climate emergency. We have an Energy Secretary who wants “every last drop” of oil and gas to be extracted from the North Sea. We have a COP26 President who is happy to accept donations from oil drillers. One of Truss’s first announcements in office was lifting the ban on fracking - a move so dangerous that even Kwasi Kwarteng warned against it just months ago.
We don’t have to choose between bringing down the cost of living or tackling the climate emergency. On the contrary: they are two sides of the same coin, and with popular, pragmatic solutions we could address both. Instead of lining the pockets of bankers and fossil fuel tycoons, we could focus on a transition to renewables, and reduce energy use by insulating every home. Nationalising utilities would enable them to be run in the interest of people and the planet, not shareholder profits.
I know I’m not just speaking for myself here. According to recent polling, two-thirds of people agree that ordinary workers don’t get their fair share of the nation’s wealth. Eight in ten see climate change as a global emergency, and two in three believe that energy belongs in the public hands.
They are right. We’ve had enough of the rich getting richer at the expense of the majority and future generations. This is the case I will be making in Parliament in the coming weeks and months: that there is an alternative. If we can afford tax cuts for millionaires, we can definitely afford a Green New Deal that would benefit everyone.
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