Labour came to power nine months ago. In that time, they’ve cut foreign aid, gone hard on asylum seekers and are now turning on benefits recipients’ (Photo: House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA Wire)
Unconditional fidelity to a particular community, faith or political party leads even the most thoughtful and intelligent people down a blind alley. That’s what I thought after reading Polly Toynbee’s latest Guardian column, published hours before Liz Kendall, the Work and Pensions secretary, announced sweeping benefits cuts.
The legendary leftie columnist agreed that the poorest and most vulnerable cannot bear further cuts to welfare, yet remained staunchly loyal: “If spending cuts will be as deep as predicted, that demands a strong act of faith from Labour supporters that things will eventually get better… every Labour government always improves the living standards of those with least, lifts more children out of poverty, revives the NHS, schools and local councils. In this dark economic moment, it takes trust to believe Starmer and Reeves too will, in the end, do as Labour has always done”.
Toynbee has spent her life highlighting the hardships of those at the bottom of society. So the tribalism is troubling. Even more so, the breezy optimism. How must that sound to the disabled people who are terrified about what the “reforms” will mean for them? Or parents who can’t feed or clothe their children?
Last year, one young mum was caught stealing nappies in a major supermarket. She was confronted by a security guard. I saw her tears, her fear and shame. I told him she was with me, paid, and gave her my number so she could call if she needed baby essentials. She never called. Another life, like so many, living on the edge.
I travel on buses, talk to passengers. In the last two weeks, several have spoken about how they thought getting rid of the Tories would lead them to a fairer world. They also raised Labour’s benefits cuts. One woman with a disabled seven year old boy, non-verbal and using a wheelchair, was comforted by passengers as she sobbed: “I can’t live on the money we get. I borrow. If they cut that, how am I supposed to look after him?”
The personal independence payments ( PIP) for disabled people, already horrendously hard to get, is going to become more restrictive. Even more sickening is that these cruel rules are presented as a moral crusade. It’s taking us back to the Victorian age when good Christians cast the poor, homeless, hungry and helpless as lazy, ungodly and worthless. Dickens told their stories to humanise them. We have no Dickens today.
Labour came to power nine months ago. In that time, they’ve cut foreign aid, gone hard on asylum seekers and are now turning on benefits recipients. Some of this is to placate Reform nationalists and right-wingers. But mostly it is a display of how the party “has changed”, Keir Starmer’s repeated and, now, convincing claim.
The Spectator magazine this week applauded Labour: “Keir Starmer’s imminent attempt to curb Britain’s spending on welfare is a more serious and important bid to curb the growth of government than Elon Musk’s theatrical Doge performance.”
Meanwhile, Wes Streeting boasts: “I appreciate it must be so painful for the Conservative Party… watching a Labour Government doing the things they only ever talked about. Reducing the size of bloated state bureaucracy, investing in defence, reforming our public services, bringing down the welfare bill. The public is asking, ‘What is the point of the Conservative Party?’” Er, no. The burning question is: What is the point of the Labour Party?
This Government needs to know that its credo, neoliberalism, is now disowned by some fervid ex-followers. One of them, Maurice Saatchi, co-founder of the ad firm, a close ally of Margaret Thatcher, wrote in this newspaper,: “I have suffered dismay and disappointment as capitalism’s story unfolded. It was shocking to think that I had accidentally helped to create a world of staggering inequality.”
Patriotic Millionaires, a group that seeks to be socially responsible, states on its website: “We believe extreme wealth must contribute more so working people and those on low incomes aren’t endlessly picking up the pieces of a broken economy. The country deserves proper investment; what better way to do this than through taxing the richest people?”
Listen to them Sir Keir and Rachel Reeves. Otherwise, when things fall apart and the centre cannot hold, in the words of W.B Yeats, millions will stop voting because, what’s the point? The loyal Labour vote base will not be able to save you then.
Published in the In paper, 15th March 2025