Are you and your family better off under the Tories?

This government is stuck in a doom loop of low growth, high taxes and neglected public services – with no ability or desire to find a way out, writes Pat McFadden

Rather than seize on Britain’s vast economic potential, the government is stuck in a Tory doom loop of low growth, high taxes and neglected public services (UK Parliament/AFP/Getty)

After 12 years in power, the government is desperate to find someone else to take responsibility for the state of the UK economy. 

In parliamentary debates on the autumn statement – the fourth budget this year from the fourth chancellor – Tory MP after Tory MP intoned it was all down to Putin and Covid. According to their argument, everything that has unfolded – the crisis in the pensions market, spikes in the cost of government and household borrowing, embarrassment on the world stage, low productivity, stagnating wages and the fragile economy – could in no way be attributed to 12 years of Conservative rule.

Of course, global factors have had a big impact. No one denies that. Both the pandemic and Putin’s invasion of Ukraine have had major economic implications for many countries. The question is how strong was the UK when faced with these external shocks, and what decisions – specific to this country – made things worse.

Global factors do not explain why Britain is the only major economy that has still failed to recover its pre-pandemic position. They do not explain the 12 years of poor economic management and low growth that has left families, on average, £9,000 a year poorer than if the UK economy had grown at the average rate of other major economies. They do not explain our lack of energy security: poorly insulated homes, lack of investment in renewables and lack of sufficient gas storage.

And they certainly do not explain the self-inflicted economic carnage caused by a Tory prime minister and a Tory chancellor playing pamphleteer economics with the nation’s finances.

The cost of all this is felt in people’s household incomes – a predicted fall of 7 per cent in real terms incomes over the next two years. Plans cancelled. Bills harder to pay. Worries people never previously had. Mortgage renewals leaving people wondering what the new Tory per cent rate will mean for their monthly bill.

When MPs vote on the Finance Bill this week, they will be voting on the choices the government has made. They will be voting on stealth taxes for working people – bringing us to 24 Tory tax rises this parliament. They will be voting on a windfall tax that even now continues to hand billions of pounds in allowances back to the oil and gas giants, as incentive for investments they were planning to make anyway.

But the government will not put forward a vote on Labour’s proposals to close the non-dom tax loophole – a change which would bring in several billion a year for the nation’s finances.

This is not a government or a party with a plan to change the course our country is on. This is the latest in a string of failed prime ministers and failed chancellors desperately grasping at straws in their attempts to stay in control. Far from reversing this decline in living standards and national prosperity, they seem to be seeking only to manage it.

Rather than seize on Britain’s vast economic potential, they are in stuck in a Tory doom loop of low growth, high taxes and neglected public services – with no ability or desire to find a way out. Onshore wind: banned. Levelling up: more words than action. Planning reform: dead in the water. Leaving our country without energy security, our regions without opportunity and our people without the homes they deserve. The Conservatives seem to have no growth agenda at all.

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Financial stability is vital. After the chaos caused by the Tory mini-Budget, no one should be in any doubt of that. Labour will take a responsible approach where we set out what we will do and how it will be funded. But for us, financial stability must be a platform for a better future – the foundation of a strong, secure economy – one in which people across the whole country are better off and have the opportunities they deserve.

We will put skills and jobs at the heart of our plan for growth, support people who’ve left the labour market back into work, and equip people with the skills they need to be successful in the jobs of the future – in industries like nuclear power, electric vehicles and home insulation.

We won’t rerun the Brexit argument, but we will build a grown-up relationship with Europe so that British businesses and talent have the certainty they need to do well.

Our aim is to make the UK the best place to start and grow a business, supporting high streets by reforming business rates, making it easier to invest in start-ups, and partnering with business through a modern industrial strategy. And, when growth comes, every part of the country should benefit.

Pat McFadden is MP for Wolverhampton South East and shadow chief secretary to the Treasury