Dan Jarvis, MP for Barnsley Central has accused the Chancellor of the Exchequer of “failure” following his Autumn Statement, a ‘mini-budget’ that sets out his latest plans for the economy.
“This was a chance for the Chancellor to help families that are struggling to make ends meet,” said Dan, “but the reality is, this Government doesn’t care about ordinary, hardworking people; they would rather give a tax cut to millionaires than ease the burden on households in places like Barnsley.”
The MP also attacked the Chancellor’s record on economic growth, “George Osborne tried hard to cover up his failure on jobs and growth. The Government promised us growth of 4.6%, when over the last two years our economy has grown by just 0.6%,” he said.
Despite the worldwide recession, other major economies have seen much higher growth than the UK, with Germany seeing growth of 3.6% and the USA achieving 4.1% growth in the same period. Dan Jarvis sees this as proof of the Chancellor’s failure to address the problems experienced by people in Barnsley.
“George Osborne’s economics just do not work! We have nearly one-million young people out of work; this is a critical problem in Barnsley and long-term unemployment is rising – the claimant count is forecast to be 275,000 a year higher in 2015,” he said.
The statement included an admission by George Osborne that he will not meet his target of getting the debt down by 2015. In addition, the Government is set to borrow £212 billion more than they planned.
“Most people will be interested in knowing how all this will affect them directly and although I welcome the cancellation of the 3p rise in fuel prices – as demanded by Labour earlier this year – it is very concerning that prices are forecast to carry on rising faster than wages do, meaning hard times will continue for many people in Barnsley.”
The MP’s final judgment was damning; “Essentially this is failure on growth, failure on jobs and failure on reducing the deficit. George Osborne is failing every single person in Barnsley Central with more reckless policies and his inability to admit when he is wrong. We need a proper plan for jobs and growth, not punitive measures that make pensioners and the vulnerable, families, the unemployed and the working poor even worse off, while millionaires enjoy a tax cut!”
The Chancellor also announced measures to cut the budget of local authorities even further, meaning more cuts to public services. “This whole process has shown very clearly, we are most certainly not all in this together,” concluded Dan.