Christine Quigley analyses Jeremy Corbyn's response to the Budget
From the poppy proudly displayed in his lapel to the snappy pre-prepared soundbites, today’s Budget response from the Leader of the Opposition showcased an increasing professionalism from Corbyn and his team as they aim to portray themselves as a Government-in-waiting.
The advantage of being in Opposition is that you don’t have to put forward concrete plans for your alternative Budget, and are free to criticise the Chancellor for any and all weaknesses in his/her proposals. Corbyn spotted the open goal of a Budget without particular strategic coherence, calling it a Budget of “half-measures and quick fixes”. The party’s social media team quickly seized on the Chancellor’s comments about austerity “coming to an end”, seemingly contradicting the Prime Minister who recently claimed that it was over, to label today’s contribution from the Chancellor a budget of broken promises.
The NHS is one of the few issues where Labour will always poll higher than the Conservatives with the public, so it’s safe territory for an Opposition leader. Corbyn reeled off a list of Government failings on the health service – doctor vacancies, increased waiting times, more people on waiting lists for vital treatments. While the Chancellor pledged tax cuts for both basic rate and higher rate taxpayers, Corbyn presented a different vision for the economy, reiterating Labour’s pledge to raise taxes for higher earners in order to fund the NHS.
More striking was Corbyn continuing the narrative of Tory disorganisation and decay to areas where the Conservatives traditionally enjoy more support from the public, particularly law and order. He criticised the Government’s record on prisons, where assaults are now at record levels, and public order, with violent crime increasing in cities and towns across the UK. With Labour often seen as ‘soft on crime’, this greater emphasis and rigour could well be part of a new appeal to working-class floating voters less enamoured with other elements of Corbyn’s platform.
Corbyn’s speech led with an ‘us and them’ narrative, building on Labour’s ‘For the many, not the few’ campaign slogan. He raised the disproportionate impact of austerity-related public spending cuts on women, and specifically referenced how Government policy is impacting the state pensions of the WASPI women, born in the early 1950s. He quoted statistics on higher levels of household debt, rising child poverty rates, and more people with disabilities living in poverty, saying “This Government is harsh on the weak and feeble on the strong.”
Public sector workers remain an important pillar of Labour’s electoral base and will have been heartened by Corbyn’s wholehearted support for public sector pay rises. Corbyn also highlighted the high levels of regional inequality in the UK, compared with our European neighbours, and cited the significant disparities in transport funding per head between the North, the Midlands and London.
Less jam and Jerusalem, more suiting and substance, today we saw Corbyn 2.0. This was a speech that Labour MPs and members from across the party’s broad political spectrum could coalesce behind. The challenge for Labour’s leadership will be to professionalise enough to appeal to the middle-ground, while retaining the support of Momentum activists who joined the party galvanised by Corbyn as an antithesis to spin and polish in politics.
