Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt delivers a speech during the Conservative Party annual conference at the Manchester Central convention complex, October 2, 2023
THERE’S a sense of deja-vu about today’s politics.
Over on the red team we have a 1990s tribute act Labour Party. And in Manchester the blues are reprising the austerity themes of the Cameron-Osborne government a decade ago.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt now adds Osborne-style “striver and shirker” rhetoric to his previous demands for spending “restraint.” Tax cuts, he hints to the party faithful, will be funded by another assault on social security.
DYLAN MURPHY reports that far from helping people back into work, the sanctions regime is inflicting unnecessary trauma on working-class families
Labour will find increases in the state pension age are unacceptable, just as cuts to the Winter Fuel Allowance, personal independence payments and universal credit are — it needs to change direction immediately, writes PCS general secretary FRAN HEATHCOTE
In the current climate, it is vital to bust the myths and put forward the case for a humane and decent social security system that supports people, argues FRAN HEATHCOTE
A new report by Amnesty International pulls no punches in highlighting the Labour government’s human rights violations of those on benefits, says Dr DYLAN MURPHY