AT the time of writing the outcome of the Brexit negotiations is unclear. Either both sides are maintaining unusually tight security around the content of the talks, or perhaps even the principals do not know what the final destination will be.

But if we take a step back and rather than focus on forecasts of the Brexit negotiations and their impact, we look to what the Tories are currently doing, a clearer picture should emerge.

Governments always aim to align domestic and foreign policy around complementary aims. A failure to maintain that alignment can rapidly lead to a failure of government. Therefore, we should judge what the overall aims of this government not by rows about future fish quotas, but instead by what it is actually doing here and now.

In this light, it is not a forecast to say that the government is engaging in a ferocious attack on pay, jobs and living standards. It is already happening.

Having been prominently clapped by ministers for weeks on end, most public-sector workers are now facing a pay freeze, which is a cut in real terms after inflation. The government is clearly hoping that this will set a “going rate” for most workers in the private sector too. This is what Cameron, Osborne and the Lib Dems did from 2010 onwards through austerity.

There is worse. Most furloughed workers got 80 per cent of their wages, although the Chancellor announced at one stage it would be even lower but was forced to retreat. Many employers are clearly hoping to make pay cuts of this type the new normal.

If anyone doubts that, then they need only to tot up the number of very large employers which have initiated fire and rehire schemes, permanently reducing the pay and conditions (and pensions) of their workers backed up by the threat of redundancies.

British Gas, British Airways and BT all fall into this category and there are many more besides. The government could legislate to prevent this, but actively opposes new laws.

Some workers, such as recent freelancers and the self-employed, have received little or no financial support at all, leading to greater casualisation.

Given the vast sums the government has already committed, they could have easily provided 100 per cent financial support (up to £30,000 a year) for all furloughed workers as well as for all those asked to go into self-isolation.

This would have been an important factor in helping to contain the spread of the virus as well as preventing widespread misery or even destitution. There never was any “trade-off” between protecting lives and protecting livelihoods.

The government has also renewed a major assault on the provision of public services. Although the NHS is partly exempt, the latest Spending Statement threatens long-lasting real terms cuts in in virtually every other public service. The main exception is military spending, where spending on offensive capabilities is set to rise sharply. This will not make us safer. The clear priority is warfare, not the welfare of our people.

These cuts to public services will have a disproportionate effect on women, who are always forced to bear the brunt of cuts to social care, health, education and other public goods. We also know that Black and Asian people, as well as poorer communities in general, have borne the brunt of the death toll in the pandemic.

But there have been precious few expressions of concern and certainly no action from ministers to address these deepening inequalities.

Instead, the Cabinet ideologues continue to fight what they call “culture wars,” with increased stop and search, rounding up Black people for deportation flights and the terrible treatment of asylum-seekers which are all designed to create scapegoats and whip up racism. This purpose is to serve as a distraction from the government’s own failings.

The partial exemption of the NHS from future cuts should not obscure how much the private sector is siphoning off from the health service. The most recent report from the National Audit Office is that an enormous £22 billion has been wasted on the private-sector test and trace system alone, where less than half of tests are returned in 24 hours and which is failing to reach contacts.

This is part of the wider scandal of privatisation, outsourcing, incompetence and cronyism which has characterised the government’s entire approach. Tens of billions have been wasted.

Outrageously, the government as a whole has treated the pandemic as a commercial opportunity, not a public health disaster. Under the dictum of “let no good crisis go to waste” they have allowed the private sector to siphon off funds that properly belong with the public sector, including with the NHS. The NHS budget projections may appear relatively unscathed but more and more of it is going outside the NHS.

Yet this is not a surprise from this government. Very many of them have made speeches, or even written books or pamphlets about why the private sector is superior, how the NHS needs to be “opened up” to it, even how the NHS should be replaced with private health insurance.

In 2011, Liz Truss, Priti Patel, Dominic Raab, Kwasi Kwarteng and Chris Skidmore wrote a manifesto for a more radical Tory Party titled “After the Coalition.” It advocated a health service where two-thirds of hospitals “are run privately or not-for-profit.”

In essence, they want the Americanisation of healthcare. They and the rest of the Cabinet also want the Americanisation of industry, of agriculture, of workers’ rights and environmental protections and so on.

Foreign policy must align with domestic policy. This government is already engaged in a huge series of attacks and everything, from Covid-19 to Brexit, is being used to pursue that agenda.

Diane Abbott is MP for Hackney North.