LABOUR’S Shadow Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has called on the government to honour its manifesto commitment and raise benefits and pensions by inflation.
He said: “It’s very clear for us: the Government should upgrade pensions and benefits by inflation.
“It’s necessary because of the cost-of-living crisis but it’s also, of course, a very clear manifesto commitment from the Conservative Party. So I can’t see, frankly, how they can break it.
“I think that what you’re seeing at the minute is the Government, frankly, put up a new idea every day testing the water a little bit.
“That’s incredibly bad, because it’s putting more anxiety out there when frankly, the job of the government right now should be putting some common stability in place. But of course, they are themselves the cause of this crisis because of that mini budget three weeks ago.”
Speaking in an interview during Breakfast with Isabel Webster and Paul Hawkins, he said: “The only reason we’re talking about spending cuts is due to that mini budget three weeks ago, and because we haven’t had an OPR report, we haven’t had a forecast.
“I honestly can’t tell you if the black hole may or may not be £70 billion or £50 billion…one of our motions in Parliament today is to get that information so we can make that decision.
“If the Conservative Party is genuinely talking about spending cuts, breaking manifesto commitments, because of the crisis it created with that mini budget, I think people quite frankly, will be furious. And I think…that would be the opposite of the agenda they were elected on in 2019.
“So, if that is what they’re going to do, we’ll get the forecast, we’ll put the policies forward but let’s have a general election and let the public decide which way they want to go.”
Asked if Labour would not cut spending, he said: “I can only give you specific budgets once we’ve seen the actual state of the national finances.
“I do feel this incredible sense of anger that three weeks ago, this wouldn’t even have been a question mark but the fact that the Conservative Party borrowed money to do unfunded tax cuts for wealthy people that’s pushing the cost of borrowing for the government through the roof to record levels, has resulted in a major depreciation of sterling.
“If you think about…Black Wednesday, for instance, when John Major got into some trouble, the fact was they were trying to tackle things like inflation, this was to deliver tax cuts for the wealthy. And if they’re going to try and return to austerity because of the damage they have caused, I cannot see how either they’ve got the mandate in Parliament for that, or we’ll have the consent of the British public to do that.”
