FINANCIAL STATEMENT "Tax cuts for the rich a reckless economic gamble" says ALBA's Neale Hanvey MP

ALBA Westminster Leader Neale Hanvey MP has reacted to the Chancellor’s financial statement. Speaking today (Friday) Mr Hanvey said:

“The Tories have embarked on a reckless economic gamble where interest rates go through the roof, sterling through the floor, public services are left to rot while the rich get richer and working people have their living standards ravaged by inflation.

“Thatcherism first brought unfettered greed to the fore in my lifetime. Avarice fed by the steady destruction of the post-war social contract and the bargain basement sell off of public assets and resources. The financial crisis of 2008 was the result of reckless lending driven by the banker’s bonus culture, yet it’s been the rest of us; nurses, doctors, shop-workers, the disabled and disadvantaged who’ve been stuck with the bill. After more than a decade of austerity, stagnant wages and the erosion of public services and welfare, the new  Prime Minister’s economic plan once again places corporate greed and tax cuts for the rich before the needs of the people. 

“Privatisation’s only success has been to channel public funds into the hands of shareholders. Failing markets have been bailed out on the back of the poor. Cutting tax on poverty wages won’t heat homes or put food on the table. Whatever the economic question is, “Trussenomics” is not the answer. It’s just the latest label for a culture of greed that relies on a falsehood that wealth trickles downwards. If we’ve learnt nothing else in the last decade, we know this to be a lie used as cover for the continued robbery of the public purse by the already obscenely wealthy.”