This afternoon, the Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt delivered the government’s autumn statement to parliament.
Reacting to it, Margaret Greenwood, the MP for Wirral West, said, “I am extremely concerned about what today’s autumn statement will mean for those who are struggling to make ends meet and particularly for those on low pay.
“By freezing the income tax personal allowance until April 2028, the chancellor has decided to increase the overall number of people who pay income tax by some 3.2 million, bringing in many low paid workers.
“There are over 14 million people living in poverty in the UK and 4.3 million of these are children.
“Yet this Conservative government which claims to be a government of compassion lacks any determination to address this, leaving children going hungry.
“The last Labour government lifted one million children out of poverty; the current government should learn from this and take immediate action.
“Over a million food parcels were given out by the Trussell Trust foodbank network in the six months between April and September this year. This is the result of 12 years of economic failure from the Conservatives.
“This autumn statement was devastating too for our response to the climate emergency.
“The previous chancellor and now prime minister Rishi Sunak allowed oil and gas companies to shield 91% of their profits from the Energy Profits Levy, and now the chancellor Jeremy Hunt has decided to tax electricity generators at a higher rate than oil and gas companies.
“It is clear that this is a government that is determined to protect oil and gas companies at a time when they should be encouraging investment in renewables.
“To add insult to injury, the chancellor has introduced a tax on electric cars at the very time that people should be being encouraged to use them. He has also failed to come forward with anything to develop onshore wind and he is delaying new funding for energy efficiency until 2025.
“This is a budget that fails to protect people on low incomes, fails to address the crisis in child poverty and does a disservice to the next generation by failing to tackle the climate emergency.”
Image: Christopher Bill
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