22 November 2023 , 17:12
1348
0
The question Mirror readers will be asking themselves today is the same that they will be asking at the next general election - do my family and I feel better off than when the Conservatives came to power thirteen years ago?
I have not met a single person who says yes. We all feel it, every day. Prices in the shop are up, energy bills have soared, the monthly mortgage payment is higher after the Conservatives crashed the economy last year.
To have a strong economy, lower taxes and better wages you must have growth. Under the Tories, it has ground to a halt.
As a result, public services like our NHS are on their knees. Nothing Jeremy Hunt said changes that. Nothing he has done can distract from a Conservative Party that has failed on the economy and blown up our public finances.
Our national debt is going up and inflation - the prices we pay - are expected to be even higher next year than previously thought. I have long argued that working people pay too much tax.
Brit 'saw her insides' after being cut open by propeller on luxury diving trip
There have been 25 Tory tax rises over the last four years and, even after today, households are still paying £4,300 more in tax under the Tories. That’s why I support a tax cut for working people.
But I know Mirror readers will not be taken for fools. Today’s tax cut is more about a tired, divided, out of touch Conservative Party that is desperate to cling to power than it is about helping the British people.
There was no plan to cut hospital waiting lists, no plan to recruit more teachers for our schools and no plan to cut energy bills. My priorities as Chancellor would be the same as yours: tackling the cost of living, growing the economy, bringing down bills and making working people in all parts of the country better off.
That will be at the heart of Labour’s plans for the next general election. It will be the heart of our plans for government. And the sooner we have the chance to deliver them, the sooner we can deliver for the British people.
* Follow Mirror Politics on Snapchat, Tiktok, Twitter and Facebook.