Monday 8 December 2014

A record of broken promises

David Cameron and Nick Clegg have failed every test and broken every promise they’ve made on the economy.

They promised we’d be all in this together but then they gave millionaires a huge tax cut. They promised people would be better off. But most people in South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire are not feeling the recovery. On average, working people are now £1,600 a year worse off than in 2010.

It’s this cost-of-living crisis why the Chancellor had to admit that his key promise – to balance the nation’s books by next year – now lies in tatters.

Because wages aren’t rising and too many are stuck in low-paid jobs, the tax revenues we need to get the deficit down aren’t coming in.
They don’t understand the fundamental link between the living standards of everyday working people and Britain’s ability to deal with the deficit. George Osborne has now borrowed a staggering £219 billion more than he said he would. Worse, the economy is set to slow down next year after forecasts for wages have been revised down again. Yet he still tries to claim that the economy is fixed and his plan is working. How out of touch can you get?

The alternative strategy is to raise the minimum wage, expand free childcare for working parents, scrap the bedroom tax and cut business rates for small firms, and reverse the £3 billion a year tax cut this government has given to the top one per cent of earners. That would balance the books in a fairer way.

Changing stamp duty to help people on middle and low incomes is welcome, but most of all we also need to get more homes built.


David Cameron, Nick Clegg and George Osborne promised to eliminate the deficit by 2015. But with less money coming in because of their wrong economic decisions, they’ve broken their promise, failed their own economic test. Its hardworking people who are paying the price. It’s time for an economic recovery for the many, not just a few.