I WROTE in my last Morning Star column how Boris Johnson’s government signals every day that will put the interests of the 1 per cent first — and this week has given us ample more proof of this.

As Jeremy Corbyn said, this is a government with “no mandate, no morals and no majority.”

We have seen again this week how Johnson and his divisive hard-right Cabinet are willing to gamble with people’s jobs and living standards, both in the debate around a no-deal Brexit and in Wednesday’s Spending Review, which shadow chancellor John McDonnell rightly termed a “grubby electioneering stunt.”

Perhaps this is not surprising when one considers that Johnson boasted during the Tory leadership campaign that no-one was a better friend of the bankers who crashed the economy than him.

The parliamentary debates this week further confirmed that you can’t trust Johnson and the Tories, and that you can’t trust a word Sajid Javid says on the economy.

Since 2010, the Tories’ record on the economy is one of giving to the few, and taking away from the many.

And while the Tories may want to deny it, austerity has had real and devastating human consequences.

To give just a few examples, 14.3 million people are in poverty , with seven million people in persistent poverty and more than four million trapped in deep poverty.

At the same time as this steep increase, rough sleeping has more than doubled since 2010, according to government figures, rising from 1,768 in 2010 to 4,677 in 2018.

And this summer, according to the Childhood Trust, we have seen children scavenging in bins for food because they didn’t have free school meals in the summer holidays.

And in my brief as shadow home secretary, I am particularly concerned that, while the Tories have made cuts to our police, violent crime has risen.

They broke their promises for police funding and proved they can’t be trusted.

These are the just a few of the results of £40 billion of cuts under this Tory government, and nine years of failed, ideologically driven austerity.

This week’s announcements are a drop in the ocean in comparison to the damage caused by nine years of austerity, and it is clear that this government is failing to put forward solutions to the growing social and economic problems we face, and instead concentrating on policies in the interests of the 1 per cent.

The reality is that austerity isn’t over, and Johnson’s government is committed to extreme Thatcherite policies.

And, as McDonnell pointed out, “After 120,000 excess deaths, after £100 billion was taken out of the economy, after the worst decade for wage growth since the mid-19th century,” the “pathetic sum” for government departments which are on their knees “is just adding insult to injury.”

On top of this, this government aiming for a reckless, right-wing no-deal Brexit and staking all our futures on a sweetheart trade deal with Donald Trump that would risk the takeover of the NHS by US corporations.

As Jeremy Corbyn said in his response to Johnson in Parliament on Tuesday, the reason many Tories “would relish a no deal,” is because they see it as an opportunity to open up Britain to a one-sided trade deal, “which puts us at the mercy of Donald Trump and US corporations, and will increase the wealth of a few at the expense of the many.”

We in Labour will keep fighting this. We won’t let him cause enormous damage to jobs, living standards, our NHS, security or put peace in Northern Ireland at risk.

Labour will do all we can to protect our industry, protect our democracy and protect our people against this reckless and dangerous government.

Let’s hope McDonnell was right this week when he concluded his response to the Spring Statement by terming Johnson’s administration “a short-lived government that will go down in history for its unique combination of extremism and bumbling incompetence,” and “a government that betrays the very people it is meant to serve. A government that will never be forgiven but will soon be forgotten.”

After a decade of failed, austerity, it’s time to invest in people, our public services and for a better future for the many, not the few.

You can follow Diane at www.twitter.com/HackneyAbbott and www.facebook.com/DianeAbbott.