With the public braced for a nightmarish pre-Halloween Budget, Sir Keir Starmer today seeks to ease their anxieties.
In a major speech, the Prime Minister will say that Labour is determined to change the ‘trajectory on British growth for the better’.
But the more the party reveals about its policies, the more it betrays an utter ignorance of how businesses and the modern economy work.
Take the plan for an inflation-busting increase to the minimum wage. This could raise it to £11.89 an hour by next April.
Everyone deserves decent pay, of course. Indeed, rewarding hard work has always been a core Conservative value.
Keir Starmer will say that Labour is determined to change the ‘trajectory on British growth for the better’ in a speech today
Rachel Reeves is set to announce an inflation-busting rise in the minimum wage in the budget
But employers must also be able to afford it. Hiking the minimum wage could see companies cut back on recruiting and reduce hours of existing staff – penalising the very people Labour wants to help.
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New blow for businesses as Rachel Reeves set to announce hike in the minimum wage during Budget
This is not the only alarm bell ringing for business. Ministers refuse to class small firm owners as working people and CBI research revealed tax raids threaten 400,000 jobs.
Reverting to true socialist type, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has given every indication that Labour’s class enemies will be punished come Wednesday.
The wealthy and entrepreneurial, the strivers and investors… they look to be in the crosshairs. But these people drive prosperity. For a Government supposedly hellbent on growth, hammering them makes no sense whatsoever.
Unfair bus fares
The Government has gone to great pains to claim the Budget will not hurt the least well off and working people (once ministers finally establish who they are!)
So how could it justify scrapping the popular £2 cap on bus fares in England?
Bean counters in Whitehall insist the subsidy, which costs £350million a year, is not ‘financially sustainable’. But letting fares rise will deliberately hit younger people, the elderly and lower paid employees who are more likely to use buses.
The cap applied only to services in England and outside large cities such as London and Manchester, which have devolved powers over transport
This could leave many unable to afford to get to work, college or the shops.
If Sir Keir, with his bumper salary, free clothes and specs, ever caught the bus, he might not notice a couple of quid extra on fares. For countless people, though, this would make a huge dent in their finances. Ministers should re-think this toxic plan.
Preventing terrorism
The history of the Prevent strategy, designed to protect the public from homegrown terrorists, has been chequered.
A string of Islamist extremists have committed abhorrent crimes after passing through the Home Office programme.
Ali Harbi Ali was dropped from the scheme because of an ‘admin error’, only for him to stab Tory MP Sir David Amess to death.
Sir David was stabbed to death while meeting constituents at Belfairs Methodist Church in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, on October 15 2021
The Amess family are now calling for an inquest to examine any failings by the state.
A coroner considers this unnecessary as the basic facts were established when Ali was tried and convicted of murder. But that is not good enough. Sir David’s killing may well have been avoidable. Shining a spotlight on Prevent could help prevent such a tragedy ever being repeated.
■ Even by the perverse standards of our human rights regime, it’s a story to have us shaking our heads in disbelief.
An immigration tribunal blocked the deportation of a convicted Indian paedophile because it would have been ‘harsh’ on his children.
When the European Convention on Human Rights is so easily exploited by criminals to stay here, is it any wonder the clamour to leave it grows ever louder?
