Local News

Local Labour MP Tom Blenkinsop has reacted to the final Autumn Statement before the General Election next year by Tory Chancellor George Osborne.

Mr Blenkinsop said: “Budget after budget, statement after statement, Teesside and East Cleveland residents and businesses have been failed by this Tory-led Government.

“On the big issues holding back the area – the lack of rail electrification to Teesside and the uncertainty surrounding the steel industry – we heard nothing from the Chancellor. In his own words earlier this year he vowed to create a “Northern Powerhouse”, but from today’s statement it is quite clear he doesn’t have the policies or ideas to deliver that pledge.

“On the NHS – the Chancellor has not found an extra £2 billion for the NHS, as he claims, but instead is proposing to recycle funds already in the Department of Health budget. This is crisis cash because of the fragile financial state of the NHS after the Government’s £3 billion reorganisation. Our local NHS alone is facing £90 million cuts over the next few years.

“And on the cost-of-living crisis being faced by households across Britain and on Teesside it is complete failure. George Osborne and David Cameron promised living standards would rise but since the last election, wages have fallen behind prices month after month. Working people are now on average £1,600 a year worse off since the Tories got elected, while millionaires have been given a huge tax cut and new figures show full-time workers are now £2,000 a year worse off under David Cameron.

“This cost-of-living crisis is why the Chancellor is set to break another promise – to balance the nation’s books by next year. When wages aren't rising and too many are stuck in low-paid jobs, the tax revenues we need to get borrowing down don’t come in. So the Tory failure to deliver a recovery that works for the many and not just a few is the reason why they’re failing on the deficit too.

“Labour has a better and fairer plan. We’ll raise the minimum wage to £8 an hour, freeze energy bills, reform the banks and we’ll cut business rates for small firms, boost apprenticeships, tackle the abuse of zero-hours contracts and expand free childcare for working parents.

“Today we heard more of the same – an economic plan that is failing everyday working people, old announcements dressed up in the Emperor’s new clothes and one that is leaving Teesside - and the North East - on a road to nowhere. By delaying this Autumn Statement until a few weeks before Christmas, George Osborne has ensured that people know who the real Scrooge is.”

Zetland FM contacted the offices of local opposition parties for a comment on Mr Blenkinsop's remarks. Steve Turner, UKIP Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, said: "I believe the chancellor has one again used smoke and mirror tactics to try and deceive the British people into thinking he's reducing the deficit when the cold reality is that it's a long way from where he promised it would be when they first came into power. 

"I welcome the good news around raising the income tax threshold and abolishing the 'slab tax' on stamp duty as well as his newly formed 'google tax' which should generate significant income but all that was lost in the fact that once again his party is refusing to take the tough decisions this country needs for fear of being set upon in the media and the Labour Party in the run up to an election. 

"He's already stolen one UKIP idea with the introduction of a sovereign wealth fund for profits from fracking and we'd go further to reduce the deficit by massively cutting our foreign aid budget, reducing green tax subsidies and the obvious billions we'd save by not being part of the EU. 

"All in all it was a poor attempt at covering up yet more government failings whilst trying to give some headline crumbs to the people they are so obviously out of touch with."

A spokesperson for the Redcar Liberal Democrats said: "As usual Labour only focus on misery. No mention of new government investment for the local chemical industry, tax cuts for all tax payers, NI abolished for apprentices under 19, lower stamp duty for home buyers, investment for the A19 in Teesside and a £38bn programme for the railways which will no doubt include electrification to Middlesbrough so that the new East Coast operators can run direct services to London.

"It is especially pathetic mentioning rail electrification after Labour in government managed 9 miles in 13 years.

"The one thing we can be sure about is that the local economy would be in a lot worse state if Labour had won the last election. They did virtually nothing for Teesside in 13 years and officially left us at the bottom of the economic league."