Salivating Tories, servile Lib Dems and massive cuts

By Chris Williamson MP

The parliamentary recess has just started and it’s now just 12 weeks since I was elected as the member of parliament for Derby North.

I must say I have been amazed at how quickly the Conservatives have reverted to type.

Judging by the maiden speeches of the new intake of Conservative MPs, it’s clear that many of them take their inspiration from Margaret Thatcher’s period as prime minister.

This probably explains why the Conservative benches have been positively salivating at the prospect of the cuts programme outlined by the new government.

Of course a Conservative government making savage cuts is nothing new. What is new, is the Liberal Democrats’ willingness to collaborate with the Conservative Party’s reactionary right wing policy agenda.

In spite of their pretentions to progressive politics, the record of the Liberal Democrats and their predecessors in the Liberal Party shows that they have hampered progressive change. By splitting the centre left vote, they have assisted the Conservatives into power in four out of the last seven general elections.

Now we have the ghastly spectacle of the Liberal Democrats supporting savage cuts in public services, increasing VAT, cancelling new schools and undermining the NHS on the pretext of deficit reduction. They conveniently forget that the scale of deficit was caused by the worst global recession in living memory.

Of course the deficit needs to be reduced but cutting public spending too soon will hit economic growth, exacerbate the deficit and create an economic vicious circle. The International Monetary Fund agrees and has now slashed its growth forecasts for the UK economy

My concern is that the government’s cuts will lead to higher unemployment, an increase in benefit claimants and lower income tax receipts. That will lead to further cuts causing even more unemployment, yet more benefit claimants, lower still income tax receipts and the consequential continuation of an economic vicious circle.

Raising VAT is an unfair tax rise. It hits everyone, including pensioners and those on middle and low incomes. We rejected a VAT increase as part of our deficit reduction plan, and chose to increase National Insurance contributions instead – a move that was repeatedly criticised by the Conservatives. But now they are going ahead with the NI increase for employees after all.

During the election campaign, the Conservatives denied they had plans to raise VAT and the Liberal Democrats actively campaigned against raising it, but now they are increasing it anyway.

Before the election the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives said they supported investment in education. But the country’s biggest ever new school building programme is another casualty of this Lib Dem/Conservative coalition. Here in Derby that means 15 out of the 18 schemes to rebuild and improve local schools have been stopped.

Before the general election, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats were at pains to reassure voters that the NHS would be safe in their hands, but once again, the reality is very different.

The health white paper that was published recently scraps national targets, ending the commitment to keep NHS waiting lists below 18 weeks. It also means an end to the maximum two week wait for patients seeing a cancer specialist following a GP referral. And it means waiting times in accident and emergency hospitals will be much longer.

And just for good measure the Tory home secretary has this week announced huge cuts in the police budget. This is pretty extraordinary stuff given the Tories’ previous claims to be the so-called party of law and order.

These last 12 weeks have certainly underlined the fact that the only party committed to standing up for ordinary working people and for public services in this country is the Labour Party.

These really are difficult times, but looking on the bright side they present an opportunity for Labour to realign British politics for a generation or longer. The Liberal Democrats have been exposed as the unprincipled, devious and deceitful political party that they have always been and the Tories have reverted to type.

I firmly believe there is a progressive majority in Britain and we now have a chance to crush the Liberal Democrats and position the Labour Party as the only credible progressive political party in the country.

So my message to anyone who feels let down by the Liberal Democrats is, come home to Labour. And help us to resist this ConDem coalition by working for a Labour government to build a fairer society.