CHANCELLOR Rishi Sunak's Spring Statement last week was an exercise in callous cynicism which was shocking and breathtaking even by the standards of a Conservative Government which has elevated callous cynicism into its defining political principle.
Households across the UK are facing an unprecedented rise in energy bills – bills that are going to soar even more in October when the price cap is lifted. In addition, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is forecasting that we will see the greatest drop in living standards in many decades, as inflation rises to its highest level for more than 30 years – a situation that the OBR predicts is only going to get even worse over the months to come.
Anti-poverty charities warn that the brunt of these price rises will be felt by the poorest households, many of which are already facing the choice between heating their homes or putting food on the table. The Resolution Foundation recently warned that an additional 1.3 million people across the UK will be pushed into absolute poverty by next year – a figure that includes 500,000 children.
These are all problems that come on top of the damage done to the economy by Brexit. In a recent report, the OBR found that Brexit has been responsible for a veritable collapse in exports to and imports from the EU. UK exports to the EU plunged by a catastrophic £20 billion last year, down almost 12% on 2018.
However, in its pursuit of votes in Leave-supporting constituencies in the Midlands and North of England, the Labour Party have become too afraid to highlight the damage caused by Brexit in case that allows the Conservatives to paint them as unpatriotically pro-EU. The Conservatives, for their part, are too politically invested in Brexit for them to claim that it is anything other than a British lion roaring success. For both the Labour and Conservatives, the damage caused by Brexit has become the flub that dare not speak its name.
Yet despite all this, Sunak not only chose not to give any additional help to the poorest families – his measures contained nothing for those who depend on benefits – but he chose to hold back £30 billion in available monies so that he can use them to fund a series of tax cuts in 2024, to be introduced shortly before the next General Election in order to buy that election for the Tories and to boost the only thing that really matters to this ambitious and arrogant politician: his own chances of taking over from Boris Johnson as the next Prime Minister.
Scotland has very limited powers to tackle poverty and to mitigate the damage created by Conservative economic policies. However, the Scottish Government has introduced and then doubled the Scottish Child Payment, uprated those benefits which are devolved, introduced a Council Tax Reduction scheme and spent £71 million on discretionary housing payments in order to soften the blow on the poorest households of the hardship caused by the Westminster Bedroom Tax.
However, SNP shadow chancellor Alison Thewliss has pointed out that all these measures are undermined by a Conservative Government which has slashed Universal Credit by £1040, hiked VAT and National Insurance and cut the triple-lock on pensions.
It is all very well to do as Labour does and demand that the Scottish Government make use of the existing powers of Holyrood and mitigate the harm caused by a Conservative Government at Westminster. However, the problem is that there is a constant succession of harm that needs to be mitigated.
As Thewliss pointed out: "For every step Scotland takes forward in tackling poverty, Westminster is dragging us back."
She added: "The Tories will always prioritise making the rich richer over helping the poor, and Scotland will always be hamstrung under Westminster control."
The lesson is clear: if Scotland is ever to tackle poverty successfully, it can only be achieved by ensuring that Holyrood has the full powers of the parliament of an independent state.
This piece is an extract from today’s REAL Scottish Politics newsletter, which is emailed out at 7pm every weekday with a round-up of the day's top stories and exclusive analysis from the Wee Ginger Dug.
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