Shadow Chancellor Andrew Griffith has accused Chancellor John Healey of spouting “hot air” over a key economic decision, warning that Labour is treating taxpayers like a cash machine.
Writing for the Daily Express, Mr Griffith said that as Labour members gathered in Liverpool for their conference, the Chancellor claimed to have discovered a new “moral duty”. The Shadow Chancellor noted that the last time Mr Healey found a moral duty, he resigned as Defence Secretary, warning that Labour’s plans could make the country less safe.
Defence target shelved
Mr Griffith said the nation had eagerly awaited Mr Healey bringing forward a plan to properly fund defence as Chancellor. However, he claimed that despite now holding the purse strings, Mr Healey has shelved the very 3% target he quit over, dubbing him “Hot Air Healey”.
The Chancellor told a Sunday newspaper that he has a moral duty to all of the young people out of work. Mr Griffith said he is right that the nearly 1 million young people not in education, employment, or training deserve far better than to be written off.
Jobs market criticised
However, the Shadow Chancellor pointed out that Mr Healey was in the Labour Cabinet that raised a £25 billion tax on jobs, and that Labour passed the 330-page, “back to the 1970s” Unemployment Act. He asked where that moral duty was then.
Mr Griffith said Healey’s solution is to spend some of the taxes that killed those real jobs, trying to create temporary state-funded ones, calling it “completely backward”. He argued that Labour broke the jobs market and is now sending taxpayers the bill to fix it, adding that young people want the dignity of real jobs with a future, not six months on the state payroll.
Conservative plans
Mr Griffith said the Conservatives would scrap Labour's Unemployment Act and cut the red tape and taxes holding employers back, so businesses can start hiring again. He said it is only businesses that create real jobs, not government, and for those who can work but choose not to, the Conservatives would cut back on welfare to restore fairness to Britain.
He said that with those and other changes, the country can finally fund the 3% of GDP defence spending needed to protect itself from a dangerous world — be it Putin, Iran, or others who wish us harm.
Mr Griffith also referenced his own background, attending a local comprehensive school in south-east London and being the first in his family to go to university, at a time when hard work was rewarded and nobody could rely on being handed an easy life at the taxpayers' expense.
He quoted Labour's Welfare Secretary, Pat McFadden, who said in text messages with Peter Mandelson: “Every meeting I have is: ‘Who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others?’” Mr Griffith said those people still don’t get it, and those who work hard will continue to be hit harder until they do.
He concluded that welfare should be a safety net for people who genuinely need it, not a lifestyle choice for people who cannot be bothered, and that when Labour realises that, the country can start to build a stronger economy, rather than one that treats taxpayers as a never-ending cash machine.
