JUST two days after the Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ spring mini-budget ‘to grow the economy’ out of economic collapse, thousands and thousands of job losses have been announced by call centres, steel companies, the civil service and retail chains across the country, shattering the Labour government’s economic plans.
The Institute of Fiscal Studies’ (IFS) Director, Paul Johnson, warned that taxes could still rise despite Reeves’ savage benefit cuts for the disabled, chronically ill and unemployed.
He said that the prospect of a global trade war still threatens to wipe out the headroom in the UK’s finances, the BBC reported.
Johnson said US president Donald Trump’s tariffs announcement overnight demonstrated ‘we live in a risky and changing world’.
‘There is a good chance that economic and fiscal forecasts will deteriorate significantly between now and an autumn Budget,’ he said.
‘If so, Reeves will need to come back for more; which will likely mean raising taxes even further.’
The Chancellor has insisted she will stick to her self-imposed ‘fiscal rules’ – designed to reassure financial markets.
The two key ones are not to borrow to fund day-to-day public spending, and to get government debt falling as a share of national income by the end of this Parliament.
Labour clearly plans a full scale offensive to destroy the welfare state, welfare benefits and the NHS to reduce government debt through pauperising the working class, while giving ever more tax cuts to the multi-billionaires.
Meanwhile, British Steel is seeking the closure of its two blast furnaces at Scunthorpe, putting up to 2,700 workers jobs at risk out of a workforce of 3,500.
The company said the blast furnaces were ‘no longer financially sustainable’ due to tough market conditions, the imposition of tariffs and higher environmental costs.
Community Union general secretary Roy Rickhuss called it ‘a dark day’ and urged owner Jingye and the UK government ‘to resume negotiations before it is too late’.
The GMB union called it ‘devastating news’, while Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said the potential job losses were ‘a disgrace’.
‘British Steel is guilty of trying to hold the government to ransom, while using its dedicated workforce as pawns,’ she said.
Broadcaster Sky cut 7 per cent of its workforce, amid heavy losses of £773 million for 2023, and switched to streaming, cutting 2,000 call centre staff and replacing them with AI chatbots. It is to invest more on off-shore workers and artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots.
BT has also said that it expects to replace thousands of customer service workers with AI.
PM Sir Keir Starmer, writing in The Telegraph two weeks ago vowed to shrink what he described as the ‘flabby’ state with plans to slash the civil service by up to 50,000 workers.
The PM also announced plans to abolish NHS England in a bid to cut government red tape and bureaucracy – a move that could see a further 30,000 public sector workers lose their jobs.
This blood-letting of jobs comes before the full effects of US president Trump’s new 25 per cent tariffs on all cars imported by the US.
This is intended to destroy car manufacturers globally, the EU and UK car auto giants face annihilation and thousands of car workers and suppliers being sacked.
The UK youth unemployment crisis is already catastrophic, with one million 16-24 year-olds not in work, training or study. The army generals and right wing MPs are already proposing conscription or national service to prepare youth to be the cannon-fodder for future wars against Russia and China.
Workers, however, will not accept destitution and a return to some ‘Dark Ages’ to keep bankrupt capitalism going. The young generation is revolutionary through and through. They want action, but all they get from the TUC is a refusal to organise occupations and nationalisation to prevent all cuts, closures and job losses.
Workers must demand the immediate recall of the TUC general council to sack the TUC and organise a general strike to bring down this reactionary Labour government and go forward to a Workers’ Government and socialism with a nationalised and planned economy. Only the WRP and the Young Socialists fight for this policy. Join them to day!
