Was The Autumn Statement A Trap for Labour? | Pod Save The UK

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This week the attention of British political journalists was firmly fixed on Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who unveiled big tax cuts in his much-anticipated Autumn Statement on Wednesday. The Conservative government’s cuts to National Insurance will put a few more pounds into UK paychecks starting in January– but at what cost? The Guardian’s Kiran Stacey joins Nish and Coco to explain what these cuts mean for public services (spoiler alert: it’s not good), and to explain why these proposals look like the work of a Chancellor who doesn’t plan to be in office much longer.

While the Tories plot out a strategy for the next election– and its aftermath– the millions of people using food banks have other concerns. Helen Barnard, Director of Policy, Research & Impact at the Trussell Trust explains what the Autumn Statement means for people struggling with food insecurity and homelessness, and why tax cuts typically benefit the wealthiest members of society, not the poorest. She also lays out what kinds of structural changes could help end poverty.

Planned changes to the disability benefits programme give Nish a villain of the week, while Coco celebrates the heroic campaigners of Stop MSG Sphere whose activism successfully halted plans to build a bulbous, pulsating light-polluting orb-shaped music venue in Stratford, East London.

Guest:
Helen Barnard, Director of Policy, Research & Impact at the Trussell Trust
Kiran Stacey, Political Correspondent, The Guardian

CHAPTERS:

0:00 Intro
3:31 Hamas/Israel crisis
5:21 Covid Inquiry
14:51 Autumn Statement with Kiran Stacey
24:50 Helen Barnard - The Trussell Trust
41:50 Heroes and Villains

Image/Archive Credits:
UK Covid-19 Inquiry
Sky News
ITV News London
parliamentlive.tv
AP News Images
MSG Entertainment
Thumbnail Image Credit: 'Rachel Reeves, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, United Kingdom speaking in the Is the World in a Debt Spiral? at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2023 in Davos-Klosters'. Used under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED.