{"id":14784,"date":"2018-03-13T16:51:44","date_gmt":"2018-03-13T16:51:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=14784"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:59:06","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:59:06","slug":"chancellor-end-austerity-call-spring-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=14784","title":{"rendered":"‘Nothing has changed’"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Chancellor Philip Hammond used his first Spring Statement to confirm the Tories will continue to reign down devastating austerity on the nation for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ignoring calls from Labour, as well as MPs from within his own party, to reverse public spending cuts, Hammond used the statement to crow about a slight uptick in projected GDP growth for this year \u00e2\u20ac\u201c from 1.4 per cent to 1.5 per cent.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But the Office for Budget Responsibility, data<\/a> from which Hammond used as the basis for the statement, said the overall picture for gloomy economic growth in the midterm remains unchanged. The UK is now at the bottom of the G7 nations for economic growth, after having been at the top at the beginning of 2016.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The OBR forecast of 1.3 per cent growth during 2019 and 2020 remained the same, while in 2021 and 2022 growth was revised down by 0.1 per cent to 1.4 per cent and 1.5 per cent \u00e2\u20ac\u201c an outlook described by a leading economist as \u00e2\u20ac\u015bwoeful<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Despite his party having completely failed to meet their target of wiping out the deficit by 2015 and in fact having increased the public debt by \u00c2\u0141700m, Hammond heaped praise upon the government after the OBR revised down public borrowing in 2017-18 from \u00c2\u014149.9bn to \u00c2\u014145.2bn.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hammond told MPs, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is the first sustained fall in debt in 17 years \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a turning point in this nation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s recovery from the financial crisis of a decade ago. (There is) light at the end of the tunnel.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Astounding complacency”
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Responding to the statement, which deferred tax and spending announcements to this autumn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Budget, shadow chancellor John McDonnell said Hammond had demonstrated \u00e2\u20ac\u015bastounding complacency\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 by refusing to ease austerity<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

McDonnell said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bToday we have the indefensible spectacle of the chancellor congratulating himself on marginally improved economic forecasts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhile he refuses to lift a finger as councils go bust, the NHS and social care are in crisis, school budges are cut, homelessness has doubled and wages are falling.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a government preparing our country for the future – it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a government setting us up to fail.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He added, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bPeople know now that austerity was a political choice – not an economic necessity.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Conservatives chose to cut taxes for the super-rich, the corporations and the bankers. And it was paid for by the rest of us in society.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe were never all in this together as they claimed – never.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite agreed that Hammond\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tunnel vision on austerity shows the Tory government is ignorant to the struggles of households across the country.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere was no recognition of the longest fall in living standards since the Napoleonic wars, the crisis in local government funding, or the need to be bolder on infrastructure and deliver an industrial strategy that actively supports our key manufacturing sectors,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Unite general secretary Len McCluskey.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis was an opportunity for the chancellor to signal the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s intent to invest in the economy to create decent well-paid jobs, to put money in people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pockets by boosting the minimum wage and by giving all our public sector workers a properly funded pay rise.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bInstead, in the words of Theresa May \u00e2\u20ac\u0098nothing has changed\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 leaving services and local authorities on the brink of collapse.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

McCluskey added, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Tory party is a party that has broken every promise made on the economy, because austerity does not work. The Tories are to blame for the pain households and our public services are enduring. They cannot be trusted with the economy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWith the local government elections on the horizon, voters will be clear that only Labour will invest in our public services and deliver an economy that works for the many, not the few.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chancellor Philip Hammond used his first Spring Statement to confirm the Tories will continue to reign down devastating austerity on the nation for the foreseeable future.   Ignoring calls from Labour, as well as MPs from within his own party, to reverse public spending cuts, Hammond used the statement to crow about a slight uptick […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11702,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[638,885],"wps_subtitle":"Chancellor slammed for \u00e2\u20ac\u0098complacent\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Spring Statement","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14784"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14784"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26336,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14784\/revisions\/26336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}