Labour can slice it however they want, but more cuts is more austerity
Reducing public spending only makes society meaner, not leaner.
Here’s the thing about austerity: you can only do it once.
It’s not like cutting grass or pruning hedges. You can’t trim back the state and expect it to grow back, fuller and stronger, next spring. Once you start, things unravel quickly. If you cut the NHS, as the Tories did back in 2010, you lose doctors, nurses, and staff. Buildings begin to crumble as budgets are funnelled toward immediate issues. Equipment fails and is never replaced. Morale collapses.
A death spiral emerges: the population gets sicker, their health needs become more complex, and fewer people are able to work. Poverty rises. Mistrust deepens. Communities fall apart.
You can read the same pattern across public services. Ministry of Justice cuts have left courts crumbling, prisons overcrowded, and backlogs growing — failing victims and emboldening criminals who know they will likely never face jail time. Local authority cuts of 17 per cent since 2010 have broken communities, with rubbish piling high, potholes deepening, and community spaces shuttered. The loss of Sure Start, cuts to mental health facilities, schools, and welfare have left people more vulnerable, more isolated, and more likely to fall into cycles of abuse, poverty, and addiction.
Austerity isn’t pruning; it’s scorched earth.
When Labour came into power, some on the left — progressives, social democrats, even mild statists — felt hopeful. Could it be, finally, a government that understands you can’t cut your way out of low growth, and that pushing necessary services into the hands of profit-driven businesses isn’t the answer. Rebuilding the state requires investment, and who better to deliver that than the party that founded the NHS and championed the welfare state?
They were mistaken. Next week’s spring statement is expected to outline the largest cuts to government departments since the start of austerity. According to The Guardian, the Chancellor will announce Whitehall budget reductions of up to 7 per cent in certain departments, billions more than expected. This comes just a week after the government announced £5 billion worth of cuts to benefit payments, much of it taken from disabled people. The government, however, insist this is not a return to austerity — because the annual cuts would only be half as steep as those inflicted by the coalition government in 2010.
It’s hard to overstate the damage this will do when public services are already on life support. Instead, the government intend to pursue private investment seeking to cut red-tape in the hope businesses will get the country moving again. But the services that rely on private investment — the supposed panacea Labour is clinging to — are more often than not a testament to the failures of privatisation. Water companies pay their CEOs multi-million-pound salaries while pumping sewage into our waterways. Railways barely function — don’t get me started on the West Coast Main Line; I’ll hardly stop.
Perhaps the government feels it has no choice. The economic inheritance left by the Tories was catastrophic. Voters — struggling with rising energy bills, a cost-of-living crisis, and a record-high tax burden — will not tolerate further tax rises. Borrowing, we are told, is out of the question. It would breach Labour’s iron-clad fiscal rules, spook the markets, and push borrowing rates through the roof. So the government will cut — shaking its head and muttering “we had no choice” as it pours petrol over the public finances and strikes a match.
But there are always choices. It is a choice to allow huge tech and oil companies to avoid paying their fair share of tax. It is a choice to impose cuts on disabled people while leaving the richest in society free to exploit tax loopholes and shuffle their wealth offshore. It is a choice to tax earned income more heavily than unearned wealth — allowing people to profit from assets while those working full-time jobs are forced to rely on food banks or choose between heating and eating.
This Labour government has told us, time and time again, that it is on the side of working people. But working people will not tolerate another round of austerity. In fact, some will not survive it. Working hard will not ensure your bins are collected, that you can see a doctor when you’re sick, or that you will receive justice if you are a victim of crime. Cuts to public services don’t make society leaner, they just make it meaner. They deepen inequality, fuel resentment, and empower the richest and most powerful to deflect blame onto immigrants rather than the billionaires who profit from cheap labour and a light tax bill.
Labour can slice this however they like — but more cuts are more austerity, and these will only deepen the damage this country has already endured. Public investment is the only way out of this mess. That, and a bit of bravery.
See more of our Westminster Editor Zoë Grünewald writing on a range of political topics, from the inevitable fracturing of Reform, to the short-sighted cutting of international aid budgets to the political and economic inequality faced by the North of England and civil service cutbacks. Consider becoming a paid supporter of The Lead to receive exclusive additional stories and content from Zoë.