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Labour has always come to power with a bold vision and a set of “big ideas” which, once implemented in government, have stood the test of time. As we stand on the threshold of a chance to win the next general election, ending the modern-day scourge of in-work poverty must be Labour’s next big mission in office.
In post-war Britain, with Clement Attlee’s Labor government, that mission was the delivery of free universal healthcare, with the introduction of the NHS by the great socialist Aneurin Bevan.
In the 1960s and 1970s Harold Wilson’s Labor governments introduced wider education, the introduction of the Open University, pioneered by Jenny Lee, and equal pay legislation for women, championed by Barbara Castle.
Similarly, Labor’s election in 1997 saw the introduction of a national minimum wage and an end to the diabolical practice of rogue employers paying workers as little as £2 an hour during the Margaret Thatcher and John Major eras.
Gordon Brown’s work as chancellor in lifting one million children out of poverty and Labour’s rescue plan for the NHS in the late 1990s, after almost two decades of Tory neglect, are bigger than the last period of our government.
Ending in-work poverty for a Labor government during its first full term will rank alongside historic achievements by our party in power.
At the last general election, I was proud to stand on a manifesto pledge to end in-work poverty within five years in office. One of the biggest regrets of my political life is that Labor was not elected, and therefore unable to eradicate poverty among people struggling on low wages.
By the time the policy was unveiled by Labor in the summer of 2019, 4 million British workers were reported to be living in poverty. More than three years on, living standards, wages and incomes have worsened due to the Covid pandemic and the Tories’ life crisis. So much for leveling his pledge to the voters.
It is now common to see people dressed in work clothes queuing at food banks at the end of their day shift, as their wages are not even enough to afford basic items. Nurses, firefighters, rail workers, teachers and postal workers are among those regularly forced to rely on the generosity of food bank donors and volunteers from charities and faith groups.
Yet this Tory government’s ugly response has been to impose further austerity on public services that are already cut to the bone, and further hold down the wages of hard-pressed workers. This millionaire prime minister and his equally wealthy chancellor are paying poverty-stricken families for the crisis caused by the Tory government’s disastrous mini-budget.
Moreover, the Tories are deliberately picking a fight with the trade unions representing key workers who were Britain’s Covid heroes by fiercely resisting claims for fully fair pay. There is genuine frustration among these workers who cannot afford the basics of food, clothing, housing and payment of privatized utility bills.
That is why rail, postal and education workers have gone on strike, and that is why, as a Labor MP, I am proud to stand in solidarity with them on the picket line. I will support the nurses in their action later this month, and also the midwives, ambulance workers, paramedics and firefighters, if they also vote in favor of strike action.
There is a palpable and very justified anger among voters towards working class people living in poverty. This is the anger that drove the Tories out of office and brought Labor to power. Once in power, ending in-work poverty within five years is entirely realistic by raising living wages, creating well-paid quality jobs, expanding free public services and providing a strong social safety net.
No two general elections are ever the same, and it is quite right that Labor is constantly updating and adapting its offer to the electorate; But, sadly, I have little hope of a Conservative government fixing its own mess in two years’ time.
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Rebecca Long-Bailey is the Labor MP for Salford and Eccles and was Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from 2017 to 2020.
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