Comment May’s out of options as electorate tires of cuts
JEREMY Corbyn warned Theresa May that he was ready to replace her as Prime Minister, as Parliament got back to work after the General Election.
The Labour leader was speaking in the Commons in response to the Queen’s Speech, when the Government set out its plans for the next two years.
He said: “Labour is not merely an Opposition: we are a government in waiting, with a policy programme that enthused and engaged millions of people, many for the first time.
“We are ready to offer real strong and stable leadership in the interests of the many not the few.”
Realistically, Labour is not likely to become a Government unless we have another general election.
There are still more Conservative MPs in the House of Commons than there are Labour, Liberal Democrat, SNP, Green and Plaid Cymru MPs put together (that is to say, all the parties except Sinn Fein, who don’t take their seats, and the DUP, who are unlikely to support any potential Labour government).
The numbers mean Labour would find it next to impossible to lead a government. That could change, of course, if there’s a general election.
But at the same time, it’s not clear whether Theresa May and the Conservatives are really capable of leading a government either.
Mrs May hasn’t yet managed to thrash out the deal with the Democratic Unionist Party, and its 10 MPs, that she needs in order to be pretty certain of winning Commons votes.
But she decided to press ahead with a Queen’s Speech without a deal in place.
Now, we can see why. Her plans are so insipid that there’s nothing likely to provoke much controversy.
Mrs May has scrapped many of her controversial manifesto commitments.
Gone are plans to introduce new grammar schools, at least for now.
Wealthier pensioners will keep their winter fuel allowance after all, after the Government abandoned plans to means test them.
And the dreaded “dementia tax”, which meant some elderly people might be forced to sell their homes to pay for social care, was also replaced with a vague promise to hold a consultation.
Why the change? The Government needs to concentrate on Brexit for the next two years, but Mrs May knew this when she proposed the measures in her general election manifesto.
The most likely explanation is that she simply feels too weak to press ahead with divisive policies.
Tory MPs might not vote for them. And it would only take a small rebellion, even with the DUP on her side, to lose a Commons vote.
Even if they don’t rebel, some Conservatives are furious with the Prime Minister for publishing such a provocative manifesto.
Her best bet now is quietly to forget about the most contentious plans.
But this isn’t what being in power is meant to be about.
Some will be pleased with Mrs May’s U-turns because they believe the policies were wrong.
But in general terms, it’s not good for the UK when the Government is too feeble to enact policies it apparently thinks are right for the country.
And there’s another, long-term problem facing the Government.
Mr Corbyn delivered a strong attack on austerity in his statement to the Commons.
Highlighting constituencies the Conservatives lost in the election, he said: “From Cardiff to Canterbury, from Stockton to Kensington, people chose hope over fear.
“And they sent an unequivocal message: that austerity must be brought to an end.”
Chancellor Philip Hammond warned this week that the Government had lost the argument on controlling public spending, although his answer was to “make anew the case for a market economy and for sound money”.
The only other options, he said, were to raise taxes, which he said would hurt the economy, or borrow more, which he said meant landing “the next generation” with debt.
So there’s agreement that austerity is unpopular. The trouble is that the Chancellor is right – there’s no immediate way to increase spending without increasing taxes or borrowing. This isn’t a problem for Labour, as it is happy to say it will tax businesses and the very wealthy more.
How well this will succeed if Labour actually gets into power remains to be seen, but it has a policy to end austerity which appears to be popular.
The Conservatives face an electorate which has simply had enough of what many perceive as swingeing cuts (the spending figures tell a slightly different story, but that’s a topic for another day).
Voters may have accepted the need for cuts immediately after the banking crisis but, as Mr Hammond admitted, they don’t any more.
And Theresa May has nothing to offer them instead.
The Prime Minister simply feels too weak to press ahead with divisive policies