There’s ‘no return to austerity’ says the BBC. Why are we poor then?

In a speculative article about Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s Spring Statement, the BBC’s Faisal Islam admits that

on Wednesday, the number of people losing Personal Independence Payments (PIP) and Universal Credit, how much on average, and the split between current or future recipients should be revealed. Hundreds of thousands will lose thousands of pounds worth of health-related benefits.

There is a £2.2bn cut to civil service admin costs, including staffing by 2029-30. A 15% cut is a significant chunk of what is spent by central government on wages and consultants.

The chancellor suggested a loss of 10,000 roles.

He also said there would be

a further fractional trim to the rise in departmental budgets, a crackdown on tax avoidance, and the switch from aid to defence spending.

But he then, startlingly, goes on to state that

it will be difficult to characterise this as “austerity” given the early injection of significant upfront sums into public spending at the Budget.

This is a huge distortion of the facts that can only be excused with extreme political myopia or naiveté.

Labour has inflicted huge cuts on the amount of money available to ordinary working-class people. Think of the restriction of Winter Fuel Payment and those benefit cuts. Think of the threatened job cuts as employers have to accommodate Reeves’s minimum wage and National Insurance increases.

The fact that she has put money into the NHS and a few of her government’s pet projects does not balance those losses.

People are poorer – just as they were, increasingly, under the 14 years of Conservative government.

To them, it feels like austerity. And if it feels like austerity, then they’re going to know that it is austerity, no matter what Faisal Islam – or the Chancellor – might say.

That’s why it is no surprise that she has now been nicknamed Rachel Thieves.