Thread by @bphillipsonMP

The British people are paying the price for Tory failure.

It’s a year since Rishi Sunak’s summer statement, so he’s been out and about.

He’s now confirmed he’s cutting Universal Credit by £20/week in October.

But don’t forget his other moves. A little thread 🧵 ...

There’s the real terms pay cut for NHS staff Rishi Sunak started in April.

That’s right – a cut to the income of the people who looked after hundreds of thousands of covid patients.

theguardian.com/society/2021/m…

There’s Rishi Sunak’s decision to hike council tax by up to 5%.

Cutting everyone’s ability to buy things is holding back the recovery here in Britain.

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9…

And of course Rishi Sunak froze income tax thresholds from April 2022.

Meaning more people who don’t earn much will be paying more tax.

Again – it means people have less in their pockets, and a slower recovery.
moneysavingexpert.com/news/2021/03/b…

Rishi Sunak’s Universal Credit cut affects millions of people and their families.

In fact, it affects more households in Britain 🇬🇧, than there are people in Denmark 🇩🇰.

walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/u…

It’s easy to glaze over when you see these numbers.

But in cash terms, for a newly qualified nurse with children receiving Universal Credit, Rishi Sunak’s decisions have costs.

The pay deal leaves them £274 worse off and the UC cut £1,040 worse off.

It’s not just about leaving individuals worse off.

Rishi Sunak’s decisions on business rates are punishing high street firms.

Hundreds of thousands of businesses are seeing their rates bill jump – before they can operate at full capacity again.

https://twitter.com/bphillipsonmp/status/1410523972488282114

And Rishi Sunak is now making employers pay a greater chunk of the cost of furlough.

Though many businesses can’t yet go back to normal.

And can’t afford the extra costs of keeping on staff till they do.
mgr.co.uk/employers-requ…

Thousands of firms are facing a debt mountain though they aren’t yet out of the woods.

But Rishi Sunak won’t change the way support loans are repaid.

Even though the whole point was to tide them over.
labour.org.uk/press/labour-s…

But Rishi Sunak’s decisions aren’t just about making working people and British businesses pay the price.

Again and again he gets the big calls wrong, has to tear up his own plans, or fails spectacularly.

It’s a year today since Rishi Sunak announced the Jobs Retention Bonus.

His own civil servants said it wasn’t value for money.

So did Labour.

He ended up cancelling it.

The promised replacement never arrived.

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…

And it’s a year today since Rishi Sunak launched the Kickstart Scheme, to help younger people get into work.

We hear less about that these days.
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…

Rishi Sunak himself admitted on 22 June this year that only 31,000 Kickstarters had started their jobs.

But the target for placements is 250,000 by December.

hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2021-0…

More recent information suggests 36,000 placements have now begun.

But for Rishi Sunak to hit his targets, there needs to be an average of 10,000 starts a week.

thetimes.co.uk/article/all-th…

Another of Rishi Sunak’s bright ideas was the Green Homes Grant.

£2 billion. £2,000,000,000.

It was cancelled before the money was spent, breaking the government’s promise to deliver 100,000 new jobs across England.

theguardian.com/environment/20…

And that means jobs disappearing.

But not Rishi Sunak’s job.

Oh no.

Instead northern England and the Midlands have been hit hardest by the Government winding down the scheme, with 48,000 jobs lost.
inews.co.uk/news/environme…

Rishi Sunak’s stamp duty holiday handed a huge bung to second home buyers and buy-to-let landlords.

This wasn’t hard to foresee.

The Welsh Labour government designed their equivalent tax cut to exclude those groups from benefitting.

Rishi Sunak didn’t.
gov.wales/finance-minist…

The housing market, predictably, went into overdrive.

Rishi Sunak’s decision has hit families struggling to start a home.

It means first time buyers are paying an extra £18,537 for their first home compared to this time last year.
estateagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/…

You might remember Eat Out to Help Out.

Rishi Sunak was all over it last summer.

You might not, of course, because he doesn’t talk about it much any more.
standard.co.uk/news/politics/…

Rishi Sunak’s decision to launch Eat Out to Help Out ...

... without taking epidemiological advice, and

... without sorting out Test & Trace first,

caused huge loss and suffering.

And the largest economic decline in the G7.
labour.org.uk/press/rachel-r…

These are people’s livelihoods.

These are people’s families.

These are people’s firms.

This is our country, our economy, and our money.

And these are Rishi Sunak’s decisions.

Don’t ever forget.