McDonnell demands “emergency Budget” and halt on universal credit

John McDonnell will tomorrow call on the chancellor to use next week’s Budget to halt the chaotic roll-out of universal credit.

The shadow chancellor will say Philip Hammond has failed to understand the lives of working people and will demand a “genuine and decisive change of course”.

Hammond, who expected to be sacked if Theresa May had won a majority at the general election, will deliver his first autumn Budget next Wednesday and is expected to unveil downgrades to Britain’s economic forecasts as Brexit moves closer.

Tomorrow McDonnell will on his opposite number to begin to tilt the economy away from a wealthy elite.

“In his first year as chancellor, Philip Hammond has demonstrated that he completely fails to understand how working people are struggling after seven years of Tory austerity.

“Next week the country needs an ‘emergency Budget’ for our public services that are in crisis, not a budget desperately designed to save the jobs of a weak prime minister and her embattled chancellor.

“There has to be a genuine and decisive change of course.

“As the Paradise Papers revealed yet again, the Tories have created an economy in which the rich elite at the top do better than ever, while the rest of us have to live with our vital public services teetering on the brink.

“While the Tories refuse to properly clamp down on tax avoidance and push ahead with tax giveaways to the corporations and super rich, public sector workers like our nurses are relying on food banks.”

McDonnell’s five demands are:

1. Pause and fix universal credit.

2. Provide new funding to lift the public sector pay cap.

3. Serious funding for infrastructure across the whole country.

4. Properly fund public services including health, education, and local government.

5. Launch a large-scale public house-building programme.