Austerity Row: Labour Faces Backlash Over Spending Plans

National World - LocalTV

Labour’s multi-billion-pound spending cuts spark fierce debate over the party’s commitment to social justice. We examine whether the government’s financial plans signal prudent economics or mark a return to austerity.

Transcript

00:00What we've got to remember is that the Labour Party, which have only been in power since

00:05last July, they inherited something of a mess. And of course, we hear a lot about the black

00:10hole that they're trying to fill. And of course, this is part of the issue. Now, of course,

00:17there's argument about the size of this. But undoubtedly, we've had big, big problems in

00:22terms of cutting services. The Labour Party want to provide better services. The difficulty

00:27is that they want economic growth to sort of go with it, to sort of provide the surpluses

00:31through taxation and whatever else that's going to create the jobs and sort of income

00:35into this sort of Dixchequer. What we've got to remember, of course, is that the Conservatives

00:40who came to power in 2010, to start off with, of course, in coalition with the Liberal Democrats,

00:47they had the austerity years, which was to try and reduce the public debt.

00:50There's clear unease about the wider implication of the cuts. Economists and social policy

00:56experts highlight that even well-intentioned spending reductions can have unintended consequences.

01:02Historically, austerity measures have sometimes increased inequalities, particularly affecting

01:08disadvantaged communities. A critical challenge Labour now faces is ensuring its fiscal restraint

01:15does not unintentionally undermine public confidence or compromise the party's traditional

01:21commitment to social justice.

01:23Now, if I sort of tell you that the amount of public debt we've got is pretty massive,

01:29such the extent that we're sort of paying something like £100 billion a year just in

01:33servicing that debt, that's the interest. Indeed, the counter-argument is that you tax

01:37the super-rich, who are sort of pretty immune to this. But of course, as we sort of see

01:42with the announcements of Lakshmi Mantel, the steel magnet is going to sort of leave

01:46this country because, of course, the amount of money he has to pay. It's a really difficult

01:51problem. And indeed, those people who voted for Labour last year, admittedly, it was what's

01:56known as a sort of loveless landslide, because, of course, they sort of came to power by not

02:01winning more than 33%, a third of the people who turned out, probably about 20% of the

02:07electorate voted for them, are now going to be associated with, as I say, continuance

02:12of the austerity. They're going to have to face the electorate at some point in the probably

02:17distant future at the moment, barring some sort of disaster, and people will remember

02:21this. So I suspect those who sort of voted for the Labour Party to make their lives better

02:25are not feeling any benefit whatsoever, quite the contrary.

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