GMB On Con/Dem Budget

22 Jun 2010

The Tory claim that there is an economic necessity to make these savage cuts is to turn the truth on its head as the fragile recovery underway places a duty on Government to sustain demand to ensure growth says GMB.

Paul Kenny, GMB General Secretary said “This budget is an almighty gamble. It’s the same old Tories squeezing the least well off households till the pips squeak because they have not changed from when they said “if it’s not hurting it’s not working. It took the outgoing Labour Government over 10 years to repair and build up our public services after the years of neglect from the last time the Tories were in office. It has taken the Tories a mere six weeks since taking office to begin the demolition job on public services again. The Tory claim that there is an economic necessity to make these savage cuts is to turn the truth on its head. The fragile recovery underway places a duty on the Government to sustain demand in the economy to ensure growth. Getting back the 6% of national output that was lost due to this bankers recession is the only sure fire way of closing the gap between Exchequer income and expenditure. This was the Liberal Democrat policy too less than seven weeks ago. The lure of office has led to a Lib Dem change of policy to support this gamble which will result in hundreds of thousands of workers in both private and public sectors losing their jobs and maybe give rise to a double dip recession. What a betrayal of the millions who voted for the Lib Dems. There will be a reaction to these savage cuts. GMB will join with all those in the community and in other organisations to defend our public services and to demand an economic policy that promotes growth.”