John McDonnell speech – Queen’s Speech Debate

John
McDonnell MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, speaking in the Queen’s Speech debate in the House
of Commons today, said:

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AGAINST DELIVERY***

“Thank
you Mr Speaker,

I beg to
move the amendment in my name and that of my honourable and right honourable
colleagues.

I
have been in the House now for 20 years, never have we seen such a threadbare
scrap of a document as this Queens Speech.

Let’s
be grateful for small mercies, it’s a pleasure to note what has not been
mentioned in this vacuous notelet.

Despite
being promised in the Conservative manifesto, we have heard no plans for
legislation to end the triple lock.

We
have heard nothing about legislation to end winter fuel payments.

We
have heard no legislative plans for the so-called dementia tax.

Nothing
of the policy to take food from the mouths of infants and younger primary
school children.

Even the
flagship grammar schools policy seems to have been ditched from the Queen’s
Speech.

I
want to thank the millions of voters who rejected the Conservatives, they have
been prevented the Tories from implementing in full the cuts they promised.

Instead
the Government has been reduced to a grubby back-room deal and pork barrel
politics in an attempt to cling onto office.

The
result is that we have a Queen’s Speech devoid of content which offers no
solutions to the pressing issues facing Britain today.

The
Queen’s Speech says, and I quote,

“My
ministers will strengthen the economy so that it supports the creation of jobs”

The
reality Mr Speaker, is that we are witnessing, to quote the Governor of the
Bank of England, the weakest UK business investment in half a century.

The
growth of insecure, low paid, low skilled jobs. 1 million on zero hours
contracts.

The
Queens Speech promises to “invest in the NHS, schools and other public
services”.

The
reality is that this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Spending
per pupil remains set to fall.

Police
officers, firefighters and border guards will be cut.

And the
NHS, already at breaking point, has been promised no new money.

Not our
words Mr Speaker but those of the British Medical Association.

The
Chancellor has, in various interviews, bemoaned the fact that he was hidden
away during the election campaign and that his record on the economy was not
the central plank of the Conservatives’ campaign.

I agree.

I wish he
had been more to the fore in the campaign and his record more widely exposed.

Because
if it had been, Labour would be in government now.

I don’t
believe that, so far, the Rt Hon gentlemen has been afforded his proper place
in history.

For those
Hon Members who were not in this place 8 years ago, let me explain that the
Chancellor was, prior to 2010, the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

And as an
ardent neo-liberal, the Chancellor, in his role as Chief Secretary, was the
Architect of Austerity.

It was he
who designed the detail of the economic programme rolled out by his mentor
George Osborne after 2010.

He has
been at the heart of the Austerity cabinet throughout this period.

He should
not hide his light under a bushel.

In his
recent Mansion House speech he referred to his Government’s record as, “a
record of which we are proud”.

The
foundation of the chancellor’s record is his adherence to neo-liberalism –
trickle-down economics.

A theory
which argues that, if you cut taxes for the rich and for corporations, and turn
a blind eye to tax avoidance and tax evasion, then somehow this wealth will
somehow trickle down to the rest of society.

The
Chancellor has certainly adhered to tax cuts for the rich and for corporations.

Corporation
tax, capital gains tax, Inheritance Tax and the Bank levy have all been
slashed.

Independent
analysis demonstrates that OBR costings of tax cuts introduced by the
Conservatives on these four measures alone since 2010 will have cost tax payers
over £70bn between last year and the end of this Parliament.

The
corporation tax cuts were meant to lead to a large scale increase in Business
investment in our economy.

But last
year business investment fell for the first time since 2009 and remains lower
than in the rest of the G7, with the exception of Italy.

Corporations
are now sitting on £580 billion of earned income that they are not investing.

Some have
been exposed as being involved in share buy-backs to boost performance
statistics and bonuses.

Seven
years of Tory austerity have done nothing to address the grotesque and widening
levels of wealth inequality in the UK.

A report
last year by Credit Suisse found that the richest 1% of people in the UK now
own almost a quarter of the country’s wealth.

The
Sunday Times Rich List told us that the richest 1000 families in the UK had
more than doubled their wealth since the financial crash.

This is
the record of which the Chancellor is so proud.

Let’s
measure the impact of this record on the rest of society.

It’s
important we do because this Queen’s speech promises just more of the same.

This
could have been the Queens Speech that ended austerity once and for all. It
certainly doesn’t.

Is it a
matter of pride for the Chancellor that nearly one and a quarter million food
parcels were handed out by food banks last year?

Are we to
be proud of a government that can’t feed its people?

How can
anyone be proud that over 77,000 households were in temporary accommodation
this year- an almost 8% increase on last year?

Rough
sleeping has increased by 134% since this Government came to power.

There are
1.2 million households on the housing waiting lists.

Nearly
70,000 children are being brought up in temporary accommodation whilst house
building has fallen to its lowest level since the 1920s?

Are we to
be proud that we have a government that can’t adequately house its population?

Is it a proud
record that four million children are trapped in poverty in our country?

Two
thirds of these children are in working families.

And it’s
not just children.

The
latest figures show that 14 million people are living in poverty in the UK.

This includes
nearly two million pensioners – the very people the Conservatives were going to
hit with ending the triple lock, means testing winter fuel payments and
introducing a dementia tax.

Over 80%
of the austerity measures have fallen on women.

But some
of the hardest hit have been disabled people.

According
the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, almost half of those in poverty are disabled or
live in a household with a disabled person.

The
brutality of the Work Capability Assessment has been associated with over 590
suicides.

Is it a
record to be proud of that his cap on public sector pay has contributed to
wages falling by 10% since 2008?

We have
witnessed the longest fall in wages on record.

Nearly
six million people earn less than the living wage.

People
were shocked when the RCN revealed nurses pay had fallen by 14%, forcing some
nurses to rely on foodbanks.

Is it
something to be proud of that the UK is the only major developed country that
has seen economic growth but falling wages?

Yesterday
we had the chaos of mixed messages coming out from Number 10 and the Treasury
over hints that the pay cap was to be scrapped.

Last
night the coalition of the Tories and the DUP voted down our motion to support
public sector workers securing a fair pay rise.

Ministers
have been quick to praise the devotion and bravery of our emergency services in
the aftermath of the tragedies we have seen in recent weeks.

But last
night they could not extend that generosity to give those men and women that
put their lives on the line to keep us safe, a pay rise.

The
proper governance of this country is being undermined by the disputes between
the PM and the Chancellor.

Let’s
look at the desperate state of our public services.

How can
anyone take pride in:

Spending
per pupil set to fall by 8% between 2015-16 and 2019-20

Over
46,000 children’s operations have been cancelled over the last four years

Police
numbers have been cut by 20,000 since 2010

Firefighter
posts have been cut by 10,000 since 2010

20,000
soldiers cut from 2010.

So we
have a government that can’t feed our people, can’t house our people or protect
our children and older people from poverty.

It cannot
ensure that when people go to work they earn enough to live on.

And it
can’t maintain our basic public services.

That’s a
government that doesn’t deserve to remain in office.

All this
suffering by ordinary people under austerity to protect the rich and the
corporations has been for what?

On the
government’s own metrics it has significantly failed.

They
promised that the deficit would be eradicated in five years- now it will be 15
years at best.

They have
added £700 billion to the national debt, leaving £1.7 trillion of debt for
future generations.

In the
first quarter of this year growth has fallen to 0.2% while inflation has
increased to 2.9% – below wage growth.

Last year
saw the slowest rate of business investment since 2009.

Wages are
lower today than when the Tories took office in 2010.

Unsecured
debt per household will reach a record high this year.

It’s not
just the Labour Party that is highlighting the consequences of the Tories’
failed economic approach.

Last
week, the Governor of the Bank of England warned of “weaker real income
growth”.

He spoke
about “markedly weak investment” and “rapid consumer credit growth”.

And
worryingly he warned that “the extent to which the UK’s [current account]
deficit has moved closer to sustainability remains an open question”, as we
continue to rely on the “kindness of strangers” to fund us.

The
Bank’s Chief Economist said last week that 7 per cent of the entire workforce
could be on zero-hours contracts in a decade.

The
Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies has called the lost wage growth in
this country “completely unprecedented”.

The IFS
have also referred to the “unacknowledged risks to the quality of public
services” under the Conservatives, and judge that their austerity plans would
be so harsh as to potentially be undeliverable.

A Queen’s
speech which is devoid of any serious measures to address the economic
challenges facing this country and the pressures ordinary people and our public
services are under.

Austerity
continues to impact on our schools, health services, emergency services and
peoples living standards.

In the
Autumn Budget, it will be interesting to see how the Chancellor covers the
black hole derived from his last disastrous budget. At least £2bn we are aware
of and according to some commentators growing to anything up to £7bn.

In particular
it would be helpful if the Chancellor explained today how he covers the cost of
the £1b grubby bribe to the DUP to keep his party clinging onto office.

£100m a
vote the cost of the deal.

If I were
a Tory backbencher I would start to negotiate now for a slice of that action.

After the
miraculous discovery of funds for the DUP deal I don’t expect to hear much more
about magic money trees from the other side.

£1bn
found for the DUP but nothing to address the fundamentals of our weak and
precarious economy which is now faced with the challenges of BREXIT.

Increasingly
people are waking up to the fact that a government lacking a strong and stable
leadership is incapable of securing a deal which protects our jobs and economy.

Divisions
at the top of Government, a Cabinet divided.

Rows
between members of the Government’s negotiating team are breaking out on a
daily basis as they position themselves for their own leadership challenges.

As a
result we witness weekly changes of direction in the Government’s own
negotiating stance.

That
includes even changes in direction by the Chancellor.

Only
weeks ago he was threatening no deal – walking away to set the UK up as a tax
haven off the coast of continental Europe.

Now it is
reported he is potentially looking to the customs union and a long and
uncertain transition period.

Only
months ago he went along with the Government prioritising immigration control
over the protection of jobs and the economy. Now he claims to want a jobs first
BREXIT.

All this,
the failed and deeply unpopular austerity programme, the deeply divided
rudderless cabinet and the directionless Brexit negotiating strategy, a
content-less Queen’s speech surely confirm it is time for this government to
go.

It’s time
for change.

As the
Labour Party demonstrated during the general election campaign: there is an
alternative.

We can
address the deep-rooted problems our economy faces.

The
Labour Party has forged ahead with a serious, credible alternative to the
Governments failed approach.

Our
society can afford decent public services.

We are
the fifth largest economy in the world.

If we
have a fair tax system, we can end the cuts in schools budgets.

We can
end the horrific sight of children sleeping on chairs in hospital corridors.

We can
end the bedroom tax and the punitive benefits sanctions regimes.

And we
can do that – as confirmed by the IFS – while remaining on target to eliminate
the budget deficit in accordance with our Fiscal Credibility Rule.

But it’s
not just about a fairer tax system: we need a government to invest what’s
needed to secure our future.

Not the
derisory numbers floated by the Chancellor in the Autumn Statement with so
little to back them up.

A
serious, long-term vision of the economy which tackles the regional disparities
and the changes taking place in the labour market.

A
commitment to drive up productivity by increasing investment – as demanded by
the CBI and many others – and delivering a serious industrial strategy.

It’s a
transformative programme we look forward to implementing in Government.

This
Queen’s Speech does nothing to solve our problems.

It
confirms a Government isolated from the real world in which our people live.

Labour’s
amendment today sets out the alternative our country so desperately needs.

I urge
all Honourable members to support the amendment.”