Labour must be ‘for the many not the few’, TUC Congress says


Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks during a press conference after his first Cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street, London, following the landslide General Election victory for the Labour Party, July 6, 2024


Berny Torre
Tuesday, September 10, 2024

MORNING STAR

LABOUR must be “for the many and not the few,” TUC Congress declared, as it called on the government to ditch “phoney” fiscal rules and impose wealth taxes instead.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was urged to adopt more of his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn’s political credo a day before he vows to “make no apologies to those still stuck in the 1980s” in an historic keynote speech to delegates in Brighton today.

Yesterday, union leaders snubbed his government’s plans to “pickpocket” pensioners through cuts to winter fuel payments and demanded they start investing heavily in public services.

They unanimously called on the union federation, which represents nearly six million workers, to urgently agree a “high-profile and constructive public campaign to strongly make the case for a more radical, progressive and credible economic strategy for national renewal.”

This campaign is to be launched “as soon as possible to influence the next and forthcoming budgets and to include lobbying of MPs and the Cabinet.”

Moving the motion, Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said ministers needed to fix the “broken” Britain left by the Conservatives, but she warned it would not be achieved by “just moving the deckchairs.”

She said that, under the Tories, the rich had become richer and the poor were poorer, leaving them and their communities “on their knees.”

Ms Graham has criticised the government over its plans to cut winter fuel payments to pensioners, telling delegates: “We need a wealth tax now.

“We cannot wait for growth and we cannot agree to a jobless transition.

“Labour needs to ditch phoney fiscal rules. Labour should put its arms around the working class, and be Labour.”

She said Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s new £7.3 billion national wealth fund was dwarfed by the £80bn Germany has put towards a green transition.

“It’s a joke, if we are serious about fixing the economy, it’s going to take money,” she said.

“Investment in British industry needs to start now. Labour needs to stop the phoney fiscal rules.”

Seconding, Rail, Maritime and Transport union general secretary Mick Lynch said: “There is an urgent need for Labour to make immediate, significant investments in public services and infrastructure to restore living standards and secure sustainable economic growth.

“This will require reforms in taxation and borrowing, alongside bolstering collective bargaining rights to ensure work pays fairly.

“We call on Chancellor Rachel Reeves and the Labour government to introduce a proactive industrial strategy that includes public ownership and investment in key sectors to promote long-term economic stability.

“Taxing unearned wealth from the richest in society must be a goal for the trade union movement if we are to create the kind of country that works for the many and not the few.”

The TUC campaign is to make the case for reforms to remove “unnecessarily restrictive and arbitrary fiscal rules and a plan to close the £500bn public investment gap through responsible borrowing” and a real industrial strategy.

These include a wealth tax on the richest 1 per cent with a redistribution that will raise £25bn per year for our public services and NHS.

The motion also calls for the equalisation of capital gains tax in line with income tax and closing inheritance tax loopholes, including allowances for agricultural and business land, and special treatment of alternative investment market shares.

Today, Sir Keir will call for a “politics of partnership” in the first TUC address by a Labour prime minister in 15 years.

“We ran as a changed Labour Party and we will govern as a changed Labour Party,” he is expected to say.

“So I make no apologies to those, still stuck in the 1980s, who believe that unions and business can only stand at odds, leaving working people stuck in the middle.

“And when I say to the public ‘our policies will be pro-business and pro-worker,’ they don’t look at me as if I’m deluded, they see it as the most ordinary, sensible thing in the world.”

He is also expected to warn: “I do have to make clear, from a place of respect, that this government will not risk its mandate for economic stability, under any circumstances.

“And with tough decisions on the horizon, pay will inevitably be shaped by that. I owe you that candour because — as was so painfully exposed by the last government — when you lose control of the economy, it’s working people who pay the price.”