. World News – UK – The Chancellor’s irresponsible decisions have hurt the economy. We urgently need a path to recovery now

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The decisions the Chancellor made recently have really hurt the recovery, writes Abena Oppong-Asare MP. | PA pictures

Abena Oppong-Asare MP

@abenaopp

The Tories talk about ascending, but the reality is that they have let people down. We urgently need action to restore jobs, retrain workers and rebuild businesses in all parts of the country.

Today’s spend review is about decisions. Like a budget, a spending review isn’t just about numbers, it’s also about the priorities, values, and directions that the government wants to give the country. Today is this government’s chance to make the responsible choices Britain needs to put us on the road to recovery.

There must be a relentless focus on jobs and growth – getting our economy back on its feet. Unfortunately, the decisions the Chancellor made recently have really hurt recovery. He’s had to come back week after week to change his plans, jammed a circuit breaker that resulted in a lengthy, more painful lockout and still hasn’t acted to fix the broken UK safety net. These irresponsible decisions harm the economy. That is why we urgently need action now to restore jobs, retrain workers and rebuild businesses in all parts of the country.

We hear a lot of rhetoric from the government about actions to tackle regional inequality. Today they will make a lot more noise when it comes to « leveling » the country with further commitments to infrastructure. But whether it is Boris Island or the Boris Bridge, when it comes to turning those promises into reality, the Prime Minister’s record is a complete failure.

And these mistakes don’t start and end with the Prime Minister. We are in the eleventh year of the Conservative government and the ninth month of the pandemic. From railroad projects to court modernization, from hospitals to schools, they just haven’t delivered. In the decade leading up to the pandemic, billions of pounds of public money were wasted on pet projects and white elephants.

It’s amazing that the government can clap for our key workers one day and then target their pay the next

Billions more have been wasted since inception, and money has been given to Tory donors on outsourced contracts or spent on a test and trace system that still doesn’t work. That money could have been spent on measures to improve people’s lives. The Tories talk about moving up, but the reality is they have let people down.

So we want infrastructure spending to focus on spurring recovery, with a clean, green recovery, to meet the combined challenges of unemployment and the climate crisis, and to promote jobs and growth in all parts of our country. By investing $ 30 billion over the next 18 months. In GBP and invest them in the clean industries of the future across the UK, we can get at least £ 400. Create 000 new jobs.

Instead, the Chancellor is vacillating for our key forces and considering stopping any hike in the minimum wage for the people. It’s amazing that the government can clap for our key workers one day and aim for their pay the next. It would be another irresponsible decision by this Chancellor.

If people were concerned about making ends meet before Christmas, it would cut any chance of recovery by knocking the workers out at the worst possible time. Britain had its worst downturn in the G7 – the government should do whatever it takes to build confidence in the economy without shooting it down.

The Chancellor has the opportunity to make the responsible choice. To act to make this country the best one to grow up in and the best one to grow old in. Let’s see if he can rise to it.

Abena Oppong-Asare is the Labor MP for Erith and Thamesmead and Secretary of the Treasury of the Treasury.

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Government Spending Review