‘AT THE heart of Jeremy’s campaign on which he has received such a huge mandate, was the rejection of austerity politics’, Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell, said yesterday, referring to Corbyn’s election victory.
In his first speech as shadow chancellor, addressing the Labour Party Conference in Brighton he underlined seven main priorities:
• Tackling tax avoidance and getting the big companies to pay ‘their fair share of taxes’.
• To introduce a ‘real living wage to lift people out of poverty’.
• Cutting tax breaks for buy-to-let landlords in a clampdown on ‘corporate welfare’.
• Restoring and extending trade union rights.
• Building homes to ensure everyone has ‘a decent and secure home in which to live’.
• Reviewing the operations of the Treasury and the Bank of England and the work of Revenue and Customs to ensure that ‘HMRC is capable of tackling tax-evasion and avoidance’.
Addressing the conference, he said: ‘Austerity is not just a word, it is a hundred thousand children in homeless families, who tonight will be going to bed, not in a home of their own, but in a Bed & Breakfast or temporary accommodation. On behalf of this party I give those children my solemn promise, when we return to government we will build you all a decent and secure home in which to live.’
Turning his fire on to the Tories he said: ‘Austerity is not an economic necessity it is a political choice.’ …Of course we accept there is a deficit. …I tell you straight, from here on in, Labour will always ensure that this country lives within its means, but we will tackle the deficit. Unlike them we will not tackle the deficit on the backs of the middle or low earners and especially not by attacking the poorest in our society.’
‘How will we tackle the deficit? I will tell you how. We will dynamically grow our economy, we will strategically invest in the key industries and sectors that will deliver sustainable long term economic growth that this country needs. Economic growth that will reach all sections, all regions and all nations of our country and I mean it. …We will introduce a real living wage to lift people out of poverty.’
On tax evasion and avoidance, he said: ‘Labour’s plan to balance the books will be aggressive. We will force people like Starbucks, Vodafone, Amazon and Google and all the others to pay their share of taxes.’ He added: ‘There will be cuts to tackle the deficit, but our cuts will not be to the number of police officers on our streets, or nurses in hospitals, nor teachers in our classrooms.
‘There will be cuts to the corporate welfare system that has grown up. There will be cuts to the billion pound tax breaks given to buy-to-let landlords for repairing their homes when they do not undertake the repairs. And yes we will cut the Housing Benefit bill and we will do it by building the homes we need and controlling exorbitant rents.’
Later in his speech he said: ‘We will turn the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills into a powerful economic development department in charge of public investment, infrastructure planning and yes, setting new standards at work for all employees.’
He added: ‘We will demand that the Office of Budget Responsibility and the Bank of England put their resources at our disposal to test and test again to demonstrate that our plans are workable and affordable. These bodies are paid for by tax payers and therefore should be accessible by all parties that are represented in Parliament.’
On trade union rights, he said: ‘A successful and fair economy cannot be created without the full involvement of its workforce, that is why restoring trade union rights and extending them to ensure that workers are involved in determining the future of their country is critical to ensuring the skills and the development and innovation to compete in globalised economy.’
He concluded: ‘As socialists we will display our competence with compassion. We are idealists, yes. But our idealism is pragmatic idealism, to get things done and above all else to transform our society. We remain inspired by the belief and the hope that yes another world is possible. This is our opportunity to prove it, lets seize it. Solidarity.’
