It may turn out to be a day to tell our grandchildren about. But let’s get beyond the little red book, and whether the chancellor is clever, and focus on the real Tory plan. The plan to steal Labour clothes; to pick up on some of our best ideas – ones that address the priorities of mainstream British people. The plan to listen to us where we might be right, and to try to move squarely on to our turf. For that’s what this autumn statement was about.
While much of the Labour attack chooses to focus on the chancellor personally, or ‘Osborne’ as he’s sometimes discourteously called, it is the Tory philosophy that needs challenging. They remain out of touch on things that matter in people’s everyday lives.
Since being elected as member of parliament for Bristol South in May, one of the things I am most interested to see is all the Tory faces opposite. Well, someone has to look – and it gives insight if you look carefully.
Through most of the chancellor’s statement they were a little perplexed, maybe a little sceptical or even worried. There are, of course, many who did not expect to win in May, or win so well. They do not like being told by their local police and crime commissioner, National Health Service, council leaders, or indeed by hard-working families, that the things these MPs are responsible for are looking bleak.
They also believe the Tory mantra that these cuts are necessary and that ‘there is no alternative’. That is because they do not really understand the concepts of growth, productivity or infrastructure. Like their frontbench they are short-termist, eager for the populist quick wins – so they loved the ‘no cuts to police’ announcement.
They are hardwired to power, many believing they are the party of hard-working families. Sadly for Labour so do too many of those very families.
But these MPs are also hard-wired to the idea of ‘small government’, and a refusal to use the power with which they have been entrusted to make the changes our country needs if it is to be a true success in the 21st century. So of course their donning of Labour clothes is fake, and we need to work hard to expose it.
This is why the Tories have failed every test they have been set – and set for themselves – and why they are now betting on growth figures to bail them out in another five years.
We must of course welcome any genuine U-turns, on tax credits for example. But bear in mind how Home Office ministers have already had to backtrack on planned changes to funding formula calculations after police forces found they needed to employ consultants to help them understand government figures that were wrong all along. The fine detail that will unravel merits particular scrutiny, but if it is a genuine protection of frontline policing we should welcome it, if in tandem we question what else in the Home Office budget will lose out.
Then there is social care, a topic on most people’s minds, much of the time. Yet, while they try to steal Labour clothes on social care, we learned that some of the difficult funding decisions over social care will be deflected to councils which might – or might not – be minded to levy an additional two per cent precept on council tax. Aside from being far from enough to plug the gap, this overlooks how the areas of highest need tend to have the lowest tax base.
Large parts of my Bristol South constituency are missing out on any economic recovery because of low wages and not being equipped with the right skills to get themselves into work. All the international evidence shows the most productive economies invest in their further education. And what we got from this statement for skills was a cash settlement that will do nothing to allay fears of residents of Bristol South and elsewhere that further education they are banking on will be ravaged in the years ahead.
At first sight this autumn statement appeared good for George Osborne, and challenging for Labour.
But make no mistake, it presents us with another opportunity with a pragmatic approach based on our values to expose government failure in areas we need to win to get back into power. While welcoming positives on things like frontline policing, apprenticeships, and the tax credit debacle, we must explain how these are part of a Labour agenda, not a Tory one.
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Karin Smyth MP is member of parliament for Bristol South