Autumn statement: Labour movement reactions

Over the course of the afternoon we’ll be bringing you the pick of the reaction to the autumn statement from across the Labour Party and the Labour movement – stay tuned for updates.

Chris Leslie, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury: “What matters when you’re talking about GDP statistics a lot of listeners will be thinking, well, how is this going to affect them? And ultimately, the best judge of living standards is whether their pay is going to be able purchase as many goods and services as they were before. And the central fact that I think comes out very, very strongly in all of this data that we’re just about to crunch through, is that people are going to be worse off under David Cameron’s government.”

John McFall: “It was 99% politics, 1% economic show, with 100% theatre… the Tories were shouting and bawling and barraging Ed Balls to make them look as if he was unfit for government. So it was all theatre today and there wasn’t much economics in it.”

Mark Ferguson, Editor, LabourList: “it’s clear that Osborne is offering a nightmare vision for young people. High unemployment, low wages, negligible help on homes and a pension that’s further away than it was when you woke up this morning.”

Victoria Phillips, Thompsons Solicitors: “We know from experience of the cases we deal with on a daily basis across the UK that for working people the real face of Cameron’s Britain is low pay and insecurity with more to come as the Tory drive to cut back on ‘red tape’ – aka fundamental employment and social rights of working people –  continues with no let up.”

 Unite have released the following image today, turning attention back onto the cost of failure, and foodbanks: