LABOUR’S Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Liam Byrne yesterday attacked the Welfare State and those claiming benefits.
Byrne’s piece, printed in the Guardian newspaper, attacks the Welfare system as a whole, saying that it has betrayed its founding principles and that the system has ‘skewed social behaviour’.
In what can only be described as a lurch to the right for Labour, Byrne quotes Beveridge, he says: ‘idleness was an evil every bit as insidious as disease or squalor’.
He says that if Beveridge, the man attributed to helping create the Welfare State were alive today he would be ‘appalled at the spiralling cost of benefits. He would scarcely have believed housing benefit alone is costing over £20bn a year. That is simply too high’.
Byrne went on to attack the long-term unemployed and what he called ‘unearned support’.
Glyn Travis, Assistant Secretary of the Prison Officers Association (POA), told News Line: ‘Whilst it is easy for a member of the Labour Party to come out with a sound bite on the Welfare State, we believe that all reforms need to be thoroughly reviewed and justified and you can not always attack the most vulnerable in society because they are an easy option.
‘What about the hard working people, who, because of the current government’s austere cuts, their standard of living has been driven down year on year and now face the prospect of losing their properties through no fault of their own.
‘What the government and Labour have failed to realise is that the current crisis lies on the doorstep of both parties, and whilst we would welcome employment for everyone, no Labour Party member should ever attack those who are trying to better themselves through education whilst facing the prospects of being part of a generation on welfare benefits.’
Bill Rogers chair of ASLEF Chingford branch, speaking in a personal capacity said: ‘Reformism has come to the end of the road.
‘The Labour Party has lurched to the right.
‘Today the Tory coalition government has introduced the housing benefit cuts, this will mean that 800,000 are threatened with homelessness.
‘It is at this point that the Labour Party is trying to out-Tory the Tories.
‘They are rushing to the aid of capitalism.
‘This is even more reason for people join the Workers Revolutionary Party, the only way forwards is a revolution.
Dave Wiltshire, Secretary of the All Trade Union Alliance said: ‘This is an enormous betrayal by the Labour Party leadership. They are now calling for the complete abolition of the Welfare State and arguing that capitalism cannot afford it any longer.
‘They are arguing that the working class are at fault for unemployment and that workers are to blame for this crisis.
‘The logic of what they are saying is that workers have been thrown out of work because of the slump should either starve or work for nothing.
‘This is identical to the position of the Tory Party.
‘The trade union leaders should speak out and break with this Labour leadership completely. It is rotten and has completely joined with the Tories in attacking the working class.’
