Boris Johnson has been accused of abandoning British families to living in poverty after his legislative program for next year did not include new measures to tackle the cost of living crisis.
A think tank described the package in the queen’s speech as “cosmetic surgery for an economy facing a heart attack”.
Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer also denounced it as a “thin address devoid of ideas or purpose” by a government “whose time has passed”.
Mr Johnson told lawmakers that measures, including a leveling and regeneration bill to allow councils to boost derelict cities, and a Brexit freedom bill that empowers ministers to remove remaining EU rules , will help Britain get back on track after the Covid pandemic.
But he continued to reject calls for an emergency budget to help households that are forced to choose between heating and meals.
He also gave a strong signal that he had agreed with Chancellor Rishi Sunak in opposition to further financial support before the autumn budget, telling lawmakers: “No matter how great our compassion and ingenuity, we cannot just waste our time from this problem.
Any aid to households above the already announced £ 22 billion will have to be balanced with the need to maintain public finances “on a sustainable basis”, he warned.
Meanwhile, the finance ministry hastened to reject any proposal for an upcoming extension of support, saying further fiscal measures will have to wait until the next review of the energy price cap in September.
Top ministers, including the prime minister and Mr Sunak, on Tuesday night assessed proposals from cabinet colleagues on money-saving measures that could be achieved at no cost to the government, such as doubling the gap between MOT tests or increasing the ratio of money. children to caregivers in preschool nurseries. Mr Johnson said the result would be announced in the coming days.
But the Child Poverty Action Group says government support is “far” from the help families need to face inflation projected to reach 10% this year, and energy bills are expected to jump another 1,000 pounds in the autumn. .
CPAG CEO Alison Garnum said Mr Johnson’s 38-bill package does not offer “short-term comfort for parents struggling to feed their children in the face of rising prices, and no long-term vision for ending childcare.” poverty. “
She warned: “Promises to raise the level of education will remain unfulfilled as long as families do not have enough money to live on – and leaving 4 million children to live in poverty will not be a great legacy either.
In response to the Queen’s speech, first delivered by the Prince of Wales, Sir Keir said the contents of the government’s agenda did not meet the urgent challenges of the moment.
With the economy stagnating and prices rising, the Labor leader said the UK was “looking down on a barrel of something we haven’t seen in decades – a stagflation crisis”.
He also condemned the “inertia” of the ministers before the demands of the Labor Party for an urgent budget and an unforeseen tax on the excessive profits of the energy companies.
“We need a government right now with ideas that meet the aspirations of the British public,” Starmer told lawmakers. But he said the Johnson administration was “too out of touch to meet the challenges of the moment, too tired to grasp the possibilities of the future … their time is up.”
The Queen’s Speech package included controversial plans to repeal the Human Rights Act, to ban gay conversion therapy, while allowing the practice to continue for transgender people and allowing the use of genetic modification to “precision” animals and plants.
It sets out measures to protect Army veterans from prosecution for alleged crimes committed during the Northern Ireland crisis.
But there was no place in the Employment Act to strengthen the rights of the workplace, which was promised before the Queen’s speech in 2019, or the promised animal welfare legislation to ban the import of hides and skins.
TUC Secretary-General Francis O’Grady said controversial protections against discrimination during pregnancy and the right to flexible working and fair tips run the risk of being “lost forever”.
“The bad bosses in the country and below will celebrate,” she said.
The anti-poverty charity Oxfam described the failure to prioritize workers’ rights in precarious and low-paid jobs as “neglect of duty”.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davy said the lack of an employment bill means family carers will once again miss the weekly unpaid leave promised for the first time in 2019.
Mr Johnson’s repeated failure to keep his promise was “insulting and terribly short-sighted,” Sir Ed said.
Care Green CEO Martin Green said the failure to implement plans for much-needed adult welfare reform had left a “bitter taste” for the sector.
Dr George Deeb, head of the Center for Economic Justice at the IPPR Brain Trust, said it was “unbelievable” that the government program contained such limited action in response to the Bank of England’s warnings of economic downturn in the coming years. 18 months.
Describing the package as “cosmetic surgery for an economy facing a heart attack”, he said: “This crisis requires a major restructuring of the UK economy to stimulate higher wages, productivity, innovation, investment and faster decarbonisation.
“But the main obstacle to the economy in the short term is shrinking household budgets as a result of failing to tackle the cost of living crisis. Today’s speech of the Queen contains almost nothing for families struggling to make ends meet. “
Add Comment