The first budget of the Sunak government, delivered on 15 March, might have been an opportunity for the new Prime Minister to set out a change of course
The government set out to “reassure the markets” after Liz Truss’s disastrous budget last autumn.
But “reassuring the markets”, in the language of this government, meant austerity – higher taxes, lower wages, and no respite from the cuts made since the Conservatives returned to power in 2010.
For many, poverty – including in-work poverty – is already the daily reality.
In 2010, the Trussell Trust – the UK’s biggest foodbank provider – had 35 foodbank centres. By the end of the last decade, it had 1,300.
Since 2010, the fire and rescue service has lost around one in five jobs.
Firefighters know first-hand the reality created by this lack of investment and cuts to the service.
In the NHS, in youth services, to schools and across the public sector, a similar story can be told.
Some of the moves announced in this budget to increase childcare provision will be of some benefit to working people. But by and large, it offered more of the same.
Responding to the budget, FBU general secretary Matt Wrack said that a “multi-millionaire chancellor” had “declared war on hard pressed workers, with this budget of cuts.”
He said that the government “has learned nothing” from the wave of strikes that have swept the country in the past year.
Referring to the FBU’s recent dispute, he said: “Firefighters forced the employers into making an improved pay offer on the back of an overwhelming vote for strike action.
“However, just over a week after this dispute was settled, the Tories are at it again, with a budget that adopts the same cuts-driven approach to public sector pay and services.”
He continued: “The chancellor has stuck up two fingers to workers with this budget that does nothing for the low paid and poverty-stricken families during the cost-of-living crisis.
“The Fire Brigades Union will resist any attacks on the pay, conditions and jobs of our members, as well as cuts to services."
