Plaid Cymru MP accuses Rishi Sunak of ‘playing politics with Welsh livelihoods’
A Plaid Cymru MP has accused Rishi Sunak of “playing politics with Welsh livelihoods” by raising taxes now so that he can “showcase tax cuts ahead of the next election.”
The party’s Treasury spokesperson, Ben Lake was responding to the Chancellor’s speech to the Conservative Party conference in Manchester.
It comes as working people face historically high taxes, following the 1.25% hike to National Insurance announced last month.
Lake also criticised Rishi Sunak for his “high praise” for George Osborne’s austerity experiment.
In his speech, Sunak said that we should be “grateful” to previous Conservative Chancellors and their “ten years of sound Conservative management of our economy”, adding that “they believed in fiscal responsibility… I believe in fiscal responsibility.”
Ben Lake warned that this shows that the Conservatives are once again preparing to cut funding from public services, and that they are “willing to inflict further harm on Welsh communities”.
He added that this had already started, with the “£1000 annual cut to Universal Credit at a time when families are having to bear the brunt of a cost-of-living crisis.”
‘Austerity agenda’
Ben Lake said: “The Chancellor’s high praise for George Osborne’s destructive austerity agenda shows that the Conservatives are preparing to once again cut funding for public services and hit the finances of ordinary people.
“Despite the failure of the austerity experiment, the Chancellor appears willing to inflict further harm on Welsh communities, starting with a £1000 annual cut to Universal Credit at a time when families are having to bear the brunt of a cost-of-living crisis – a crisis of the Government’s own making.
“The Chancellor is playing politics with Welsh livelihoods, raising taxes on hard-pressed families and businesses now so that he can showcase tax cuts ahead of the next election. Families and communities in Wales deserve better.”
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We had Chancellor Richie Sunak at the Tory Party Conference evangelise how the Tories are naturally a low tax party before admitting further tax rises are inevitable and how we must tighten our belts. Oh, sure Richie Rich. Tell that to all the working poor using Foodbanks. Then there’s Boris Johnson, who today stating again in an interview on BBC Wales, and might I add lying through his fixed grin, that two years after he said like Donald Trump would “build that MR relief road” , said after pressed further about details in his mumbling way, said he’d look again… Read more »
“ten years of sound Conservative management of our economy”
Thanks N.C
I read that with a mouthful of coffee. It made quite a mess. 🙂
I liked Rishi when I first saw him as the Keeper of the purse. I was totally misled by his polite articulate presentation. After a few months of Covid the mask started to slip and he is now clearly among the most malevolent of Ministers. Despite his public utterances he is evidently engaged in jacking up public spending only on those projects that reward “friends” and supporters of the Party. The public, that wider community that pays taxes and needs services and benefits, can get stuffed.