Tories attack Labour’s poor record

It is acceptable to argue, I think, that a poverty consensus has emerged post Cameron. Both of the main parties see tackling poverty as a principal target, but there are differences of opinion about how the policy should be managed

Conservatives and poverty
One of the most remarkable turnarounds in recent years is the shift by the Conservatives under Cameron on poverty. To hear Tory frontbenchers lambast Labour for not going far enough in reducing poverty is in stark contrast to pronouncements by the party under Thatcher.

o Ex leader Iain Duncan Smith heads the Social Justice Challenge group, which is dedicated to producing policies tackling family breakdown, poverty and social exclusion.

o In March 2007 Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne, criticised Brown’s “con-trick” Budget at a time when new figures revealed worsening poverty.

And just this week the Conservatives launched a 19 page report entitled “An Unfair Britain”.

According to the Telegraph:

‘The Conservatives have published a dossier entitled “An Unfair Britain” which sets out how the gap between rich and poor is widening in health, education, living standards and tax.

The attack on Labour’s record is designed to undermine attempts by Mr Brown to mount an autumn fight-back amid intense speculation over his leadership.
The Prime Minister, who returns to Downing Street on Thursday before travelling to Beijing later in the week, is vulnerable to charges that he has let down Britain’s poorest residents.

Many Labour MPs are uneasy about the issue following the row over the abolition of the 10p tax band which hit low earners.

Amid increasing signs that the Conservatives are taking a ruthless approach to the Prime Minister, Mr Osborne said: “Now we’re told, before it’s even started, that the next Gordon Brown re-launch will be about ‘fairness’.

“But this latest desperate re-launch will sink, just like the others have, because under Labour, Britain has become more unfair.

“This autumn, we are going to step up the pressure to make sure that Gordon Brown’s obsession with his own short-term survival does not do long-term damage to Britain. That would not be fair.”

In the dossier, the Conservatives accuse the Labour Government of:

*Short-changing pensioners as two million elderly people will see the value of their tax credits eroded by inflation this year.

*Increasing the gap in life expectancy between rich and poor to the widest gap since Victorian times. There are now 900,000 more people in severe poverty
than in 1997.

*Taxing the poorest fifth at a higher rate than any other group.

*Failing to prepare Britain for the economic downturn by racking up the highest budget deficit of any developed country.

*Increasing educational inequality with pupils from the most deprived areas falling further behind their counterparts in wealthier areas.’