LUCY POWELL: ‘Labour should present extra strongly we’re right here for you and your loved ones’
‘Labour has always been, and will always be, on the side of ordinary people, unafraid to take on those who want to stop us’, Labour Deputy Leader Lucy Powell writes
Lucy Powell said Labour had been too quiet in how it took on power and vested interests(Image: PP.)
BP profits more than doubling as a result of the Iran war makes us all cross. It’s why Labour was right to tax windfall energy profits. Despite pressure from some, we continue to do so.
But this illustrates something bigger. Each time an economic crisis comes along some profit from, and exploit, the situation while everyone else pays the price. In the global financial crisis in 2008, we bailed out the banks but ordinary people paid with austerity.
During Covid, a few benefited from the VIP fast lane or de-frauded the loan scheme, while the rest saw living standards fall. And just like the last energy price shock, we are seeing excess profits for some companies.
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Because rising costs – food, energy, housing – affects those on modest incomes or fixed incomes the most – it’s a bigger proportion of earnings. This time, we have a Labour government, and things have to be different. Indeed, tackling the unequal weathering of these storms and fundamentally rewiring the economy so it works for you, is what this Labour Government is all about. Perhaps too quietly, we have been taking on those with power and vested interests to rip up the status quo.
This is not our war. Keir Starmer was absolutely right to keep us out of it. But we have to deal with its consequences. Another energy price shock shows that establishing GB Energy and our sprint to clean, homegrown power, is the only route to protecting us in future. Now we need to race ahead.
It’s also why protecting workers and giving the lowest paid a pay rise – in paypackets this week – is crucial to building a fairer economy. And from last Friday Labour’s Renter’s Rights Act will stabilise rents, stop rent hikes and end bidding wars. Vested interests told us we couldn’t do any of these things but we have.
It’s far from job done. We need to go further and faster. I know people are frustrated. They’re disillusioned. I hear that. We must show more strongly we are here for you and your family, especially in the more difficult times. We are.
Be under no illusion, Nigel Farage and Reform are not friends of working people. They want to scrap that windfall energy tax I was talking about. They believe in an insurance system for the NHS – essentially an NHS that you pay for (if you can afford it). In the councils they control, they’ve put up taxes and cut services. Don’t forget, Reform and the Tories wanted us to blindly follow Trump into this war in the first place. While we’re on other political parties, the Greens and Zack Polanski have shown their true colours this week, criticising the police for how they apprehended the Golders Green attacker.
No one gets everything right, but with many people going to the polls this Thursday to elect their local representatives, it is Labour that has always been, and will always be, on the side of ordinary people, unafraid to take on those who want to stop us.
‘Welcome end to Birmingham bin strikes’
I go to Birmingham often and I know what a huge issue the bin strikes and lack of recycling has been for residents, as it has been for bin workers too. So, I strongly welcome the Labour Leader of Birmingham Council John Cotton’s offer to workers to end them, and the positive reaction from Sharon Graham of Unite the Union.
Equal Pay and relations with the workforce have been a thorny and complex issue for a while, so this huge development is welcome news. I know how hard the Labour leadership and the union have worked to find a resolution. This deal is in the interests of the city, its workers, its residents, and its future. Well done all!
‘Good luck those taking exams’
May 7th is a big day in my house. No, not the local elections (although they’re big too), it’s my daughter’s first GCSE exam. She’s got 26 exams in total – which is too many in my view. GCSE’s are much tougher than in my day. Our young people work really hard and put themselves under a lot of pressure – mine do anyway! Good luck to all those taking big exams.
‘Here’s to Arsenal bottling it’
I try not to talk about football with Keir Starmer – he’s famously a big Arsenal fan, and I’m a big Manchester City fan. Yet again, these final few weeks in the title race are going down to the wire. It’s way too tense to discuss! Here’s to Arsenal bottling it again (sorry boss!)
