Pod Save the UK23 Nov 2023

The Tories’ back-handed budgeting

This week the attention of British political journalists was firmly fixed on Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who unveiled big tax cuts in his much-anticipated Autumn Statement on Wednesday. The Conservative government’s cuts to National Insurance will put a few more pounds into UK payslips starting January– but at what cost? The Guardian’s Kiran Stacey joins Nish and Coco to explain what these cuts mean for public services (spoiler alert: it’s not good), and to explain why these proposals look like the work of a Chancellor who doesn’t plan to be in office much longer.

While the Tories plot out a strategy for the next election– and its aftermath– the millions of people using food banks have other concerns. Helen Barnard, Director of Policy, Research & Impact at the Trussell Trust explains what the Autumn Statement means for people struggling with food insecurity and homelessness, and why tax cuts typically benefit the wealthiest members of society, not the poorest. She also lays out what kinds of structural changes could help end poverty.

Planned changes to the disability benefits program give Nish a villain for the week, while Coco celebrates the heroic campaigners of Stop MSG Sphere whose activism successfully halted plans to build a bulbous, pulsating light-polluting orb-shaped music venue in Stratford, East London.

Pod Save the UK is a Reduced Listening production for Crooked Media.

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Guest:

Helen Barnard, Director of Policy, Research & Impact at the Trussell Trust

Kiran Stacey, Political Correspondent, The Guardian

Audio credits:

UK Covid-19 Inquiry

Sky News

ITV News London

parliamentlive.tv

Useful links:

Helen Barnard’s book: www.waterstones.com/book/want/helen-barnard/9781788213974

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