Political Viewpoint

BY Coun Kevin Buck, Prittlewell Ward. Shadow Cabinet Member for Infrastructure, Transport, Environment & Waste.

Within weeks of taking office, the Labour government introduced socially and economically damaging and unpopular policies into the UK.

Due to these hugely unpopular and damaging policies, their political honeymoon period was probably the shortest of any government in modern history. Following the local election results, now the inevitable policy U-Turns begin.

Of course their political rhetoric will be that they had no choice and had to make ‘tough decisions’. Don’t believe them, as they have all the choices they need. They are making purely ideological and political choices, not economic ones. Let’s look at some facts.

In July 2024, they inherited the fastest growing G7 economy from the previous Conservative government. They inherited very low unemployment rates from the previous Conservative government. Of course, both of these have been needlessly thrown away due to their politically motivated ideological and economic choices.

As a reminder, one of the very first acts of the Labour government, was to financially penalise pensioners, by taking away the winter fuel allowance from those on as little as £13k a year. Their claim was that the country could not afford it, but of course it can and MUST. It was purely a spiteful political choice directed at pensioners, as political data shows that pensioners are less inclined to vote Labour.

The direct effects of this policy can be seen in the NHS, as in the winter of 2024/25, there was over 94,000 additional admissions to A&E for those of pension age. There was less than 1 degree Celsius difference between the average winter temperatures of 2023/24 and 20204/25, so weather as a cause cannot be used as an excuse.

So has the cost of this unnecessary and additional cost and operational burden on the NHS been measured against their perceived WFA cost savings? Of course not. Measuring indirect consequential cost implications of their direct political choices is beyond them?

They also made the political choice to be the only country in Europe, to tax children’s education. Whilst some may salivate at the thought of this ideologically motivated political choice, as they’ll cry ‘the rich can afford it’, in the vast majority of cases, it is not ‘the rich’ sending their children to private school, but just ordinary hard working parents who want to do the very best for their children.

Since July 2024, over 20 private schools have been forced to close, with another 30 forecast to close by the education department by August 2025. They state they simply could not absorb the additional 20% VAT cost burden placed upon them. That’s over 8,300 children, needlessly displaced into state schools, costing approximately £7.7k per child. So already within the first year of this government, an additional cost implication of over £64m has been placed on the state education system.

This was again a purely ideological not economic choice to do so, as any perceived cost saving, will be lost by the additional burden now placed upon the state school system. Every child in the UK is entitled to a state school place. For every child that does not use this entitlement, it saves the treasury £7.7k PA. Approximately 550k children attend private school, that’s £4.2B of avoided cost to the state.

So we can see the very first acts of the first Labour government in over 14 years has been ones of ideological, economic and social spite and harm. With the rise in Employer National Insurance contributions about to take a further hammer blow to every employer in the country, expect these incompetent economic policies to continue to do the damage all predicated they would.

We should also not forget, our two new Labour MPs in Southend voted in favour of all these polices, so one has to ask if they have put their party before the people?

We are seeing the same effects of these spiteful and economically damaging ideological policies in Southend. Within weeks of the Labour led/Independent and Lib Dem joint administration taking over in May 2024, they immediately put back the hugely damaging 6-9 evening parking charges all along the seafront from Chalkwell to Thorpe Bay and in the Cliffs Pavilion car park. The charges were previously put in by them and removed by the Conservative administration of May 2023.

I attended a meeting very recently of the collective seafront businesses. All without exception, said the significant harm this parking policy was doing to their businesses and the wider economy in the area.

One small restauranteur told the meeting that they have seen their evening trade fall off a cliff edge, when prior to the charges, it was quite healthy. They have also seen their council tax charges double, with no increase in service benefits. They no longer open most evenings now and the meeting was told, their business partner has had to get a 2nd job, as they are now struggling to financially sustain the business, for which they currently take no salaries from.

Adventure Island often closes early now, as there are insufficient people in the evenings to warrant keeping the park open. Due to the chancellor’s cash grab from businesses on employer NI contributions now taking effect, Adventure Island will also be employing less people this year.

The leader of the council also attended this meeting, but refused to reconsider this hugely damaging policy to Southend’s USP and economy. These are not unintended consequences. These are consequences of a direct cognitive policy introduced by Labour, the Independents and the Lib Dems of Southend.

All these aforementioned policies are reducing business activities, increasing unemployment and adding burden to the state and the NHS. Businesses fail, local jobs are lost and the councils income falls due to lost income from business rates and parking charges, as there are fewer businesses for people to go to.

So we have to ask again, who do Labour actually represent?

Read more.

Visit: https://leigh-on-sea.news

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leighonsea.news

X : @leighonsea_news

Contact us: https://leigh-on-sea.news/contact-us

Email: [email protected]