Plaid Cymru accuses UK Government of forcing ‘vulnerable people into deeper poverty’
Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader, Liz Saville Roberts MP has accused the new Labour Government of refusing to challenge “rampant inequality” in the UK.
Highlighting the scrapping of the Winter Fuel Payments for most pensioners and keeping the Tories’ two-child benefit cap, she said that Sir Kier Starmer is choosing to “force vulnerable people into deeper poverty”, which she warned would have “serious, long-term consequences”.
Ms Saville Roberts claimed that the continuation of the benefit cap will keep 65,000 Welsh children living in poverty.
The Dwyfor Meirionnydd MP said: “This is a betrayal of those who voted for Labour under the promise of ‘change’. The first few weeks of a Starmer’s government have proven that Labour will follow the same flawed economic model while avoiding accountability.”
She pledged that Plaid Cymru will offer “leadership” to the people of Wales with “hope and optimism for a better future” as MPs return to Westminster after the summer recess.
Ms Saville Roberts added that her party was focused on “bringing hope and ambition back to Welsh politics”, adding that the 2026 Senedd election was an opportunity for people to vote for “real change”.
Why now?
Speaking in the Rose Garden in Downing Street last week, Sir Kier Starmer said that the UK Government’s forthcoming budget would be “painful” as he asked the country to accept “short-term pain for long-term good”.
He warned: “Things are worse than we ever imagined” because of a £22 billion “black hole” in the public finances, claiming to have found out last week that the Tories had borrowed almost £5 billion more than the Office for Budget Responsibility expected.
Sir Keir also claimed his Government has inherited a “societal black hole” made worse by recent rioting, and said his decisions to release some prisoners early and means-test the pensioners’ winter fuel allowance are “tough actions” needed to fix the country’s foundations.
Ms Saville Roberts said: “Despite their large majority, Starmer’s government is pressing ahead with Tory policies that have caused so much damage during 14 years of Tory rule. His grim warning that ‘things will get worse before they get better’ offers little comfort to people who have been pushed to the brink in recent years.
“Forcing vulnerable people into deeper poverty will have serious, long-term consequences, which are entirely avoidable if Labour were willing to challenge the economic fundamentals that drive rampant inequality in the UK.”
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Liz we have Captain and Mrs Bumble and First Mate Morgan on our backs for a ‘change’…
@Got Fooled Again….
Rowan Moore writing about the Grenfell inquiry in the Guardian gives us some context that to me is basically class war…
Asymmetrical as usual and the top obscured by clouds, with certain names redacted no doubt…
Grenfell was, is and will be an enduring scandal, a symptom of the attitudes of our time. Pile them high, fill them up and forget about them. Oh and don’t forget the photo ops for multiple hand wringing sessions when it all goes wrong. But no lasting remedial work.
I know I go on about the ‘Fat Shanks Effect’ tm…
but when one reads how so many people find themselves exposed to lengthy prison sentences for blindly following the call of Tommy, Farage and X it is a head-scratcher…
What made them think they could get away with it…
Jo Cox had one attacker this time it was thousands…
We must assume that England experienced their own Jan 6th…
People being in poverty is planned and deliberate.
People have always lived in poverty – it’s a relative term in essence. And some will always live in poverty due to an inability to forward plan money in / money out issues.
There is a general lack of financial education at school.
Frankly that’s avoiding the issue – it’s the parents job to deal / teach chilren about money.
Schools should be about academic subjects, not life skills.
Look, it’s the home where the damage is done. Even if schools spent hours a wekk on personal finance the lessons would be totally forgotten as soon as thye went home as the home would continue to waste money. It’s the lessons of home which are never forgotten.
There is a general lack of life education at school, but then it’ll be over-ruled anyway by the home education, which says only live for the weekend.
And why do youbthink that is? Finacial rules are so complexed for a reason!
Or maybe just not paid enough?
It is utterly despicable that the Labour government should seek to withold the Winter Fuel Payment from the majority of those claiming a state pension, especially when many receive less than £12 grand a year. It’s been calculated that the savings generated will be a mere £1.4 billion, which compared with the massive circa £98 billion paid out in corporate welfare to for-profit companies is chicken feed. To add insult to injury, Lucy Powell, Leader of the House claims that if this money is not taken off often poor pensioners it will lead to a run on the pound. Good… Read more »
‘A run on the pound’ is this the level of BS we can expect going forward…
Shame on you Lucy Powell…
She’s working off a script that’s been agreed by the entire Starmer to team. Deviations will lead to the sack, pronto.
Utter nonsense indeed. I’d have asked if she was therefore going to scrap efforts to get more people to sign up for Pension Credit. If they swept everyone eligible it would probably cost more. They won’t of course, even if they put in a huge rather than token effort
Fair account of how things were up to ’79. You are a touch incorrect in saying that : Much of the national infrastructure was collectively owned, and thus all the surpluses accrued to the state and indirectly us. Surpluses did not occur that often and the need to fund losses and new investment via subsidies became part of Maggie’s platform in 1979. What is overlooked is that the privatisation of publicly owned assets led directly to the dysfunctional “public services” that prevail today with overpricing and underperformance being the norm. Industries like steel stopped being strategically important and turned into… Read more »
UK Labour like New Labour before them in 1997 are continuing with Tory policies that affected the most vulnerable in society and the working poor. Remember, it was Labour who employed the French company ATOS who terrorised those on benefits before they parted ways with Capita replacing them. And soon autumn will be upon us and winter will quickly follow thereafter where pensioners throughout Wales who don’t qualify for Winter Fuel Payment because they are literally a pound or two over the threshold will suffer financially & physically as plutocrat King Charles gets an extra £45 million public funding increase… Read more »
Timely reminder about ATOS, GPs and GP nurses verses their patients !…
I think they call themselves ‘social democrats’ nowadays…
It is the case of two governments, 1 in London and 1 in Cardiff conspiring to screw the people of Cymru Wales.
We really need a Plaid Cymru government as soon as possible and to be independent by 2029.
We could, otherwise, be faced with a UKIP reform regime in Westminster.
Independence now, is essential for damage limitation.
The empire is falling apart at the seams and Wales needs to give the remains of the failed union an extremely wide berth.
That £22 billion black hole is the result of the cut to National Insurance in the budget earlier in the year. This cut was unfunded in the knowledge the conservative party will lose the next election and someone else will be left clear the mess with hard decisions. The best course of action for the current government is cancel to reduction in NI and to explain to the country why. The Conservative party is full of Truss style incompetence. Now, get on with increasing the threshold for taxation to keep up with inflation lifting ordinary people on low incomes out… Read more »
How would these changes be paid for? We are broke as a country so full costings are needed for removal of the 2 child benefit cap and allowing some weathy pensiones to get free heating…
Well said Liz!!