Sometimes, the best way to test your argument is to engage with a persistent critic.
One recent back-and-forth on X (formerly Twitter) with a vocal Labour government defender provided the perfect opportunity to explore the economic assumptions and ideological framing around Labour’s benefit cuts, tax policies, and political direction.
Here’s a breakdown of their talking points (so far) – and the facts that counter them.
Claim: Labour is still left-wing – look at the NI rise, CGT increase, and frozen tax thresholds.
Reality: These changes are minor, largely symbolic, and in some cases regressive.
- CGT increased from 20 per cent to 24 per cent: yes, it makes headlines, but it still leaves the UK with a capital gains tax rate far lower than income tax rates, preserving incentives for the wealthy to classify income as gains.
- Freezing thresholds: this is a stealth tax on workers, not the rich.
- NI hike on employers: often passed on to workers via suppressed wages and slower job growth.
Taken together, these are tweaks around the edges, not transformational redistributive reform.
Claim: The UK welfare budget is £326 billion – £5 billion cuts are a drop in the ocean.
Reality: The scale of the overall budget doesn’t justify cuts that hurt the most vulnerable.
Most of that £326 billion goes on pensions. The £5 billion in cuts target working-age disabled people and the unemployed – the groups least able to absorb them.
It’s not the size of the budget that matters, it’s where the axe falls.
Claim: 35 per cent of people are on benefits. That’s not sustainable.
Reality: This statistic lumps in everyone from pensioners to part-time workers receiving tax credits.
The welfare state exists to support people in hardship, not punish them for existing.
The question isn’t how many claim benefits, but whether society is structured to reduce the need for them.
Claim: Employer NI isn’t paid by workers.
Reality: Basic economic theory (yes, Economics 101) shows that employer-side payroll taxes often reduce take-home pay or employment growth.
Businesses factor total labour costs into hiring decisions.
Raising corporation tax instead would target profits, not jobs.
But Labour chose the latter.
Claim: You want a communist state!
Reality: Wanting progressive taxation and fair redistribution isn’t communism.
It’s centre-left economics, common across developed democracies.
What we’re seeing from Labour is centre-right triangulation: austerity with a (stab at a) friendlier face.
So where is Labour now?
Despite claims to the contrary, Labour has moved rightwards:
- Welfare cuts aimed at disabled people and low-income pensioners.
- Tax changes that fall more heavily on workers than on capital.
- No wealth tax, no meaningful corporate tax reform.
- Internal purges of left-wing dissent.
This is not the party of 2017.
It isn’t even the party of 2020.
It’s a party obsessed with investor confidence and headlines in the Times, not transformational change.
When even symbolic gestures are spun as evidence of a left-wing agenda, it shows how far the centre has shifted.
Calling out these distortions isn’t trolling – it’s essential.
If we don’t challenge these myths, they become accepted as the facts.
Unpacking the myths: Labour’s shift right and the welfare cuts debate
Sometimes, the best way to test your argument is to engage with a persistent critic.
One recent back-and-forth on X (formerly Twitter) with a vocal Labour government defender provided the perfect opportunity to explore the economic assumptions and ideological framing around Labour’s benefit cuts, tax policies, and political direction.
Here’s a breakdown of their talking points (so far) – and the facts that counter them.
Claim: Labour is still left-wing – look at the NI rise, CGT increase, and frozen tax thresholds.
Reality: These changes are minor, largely symbolic, and in some cases regressive.
Taken together, these are tweaks around the edges, not transformational redistributive reform.
Claim: The UK welfare budget is £326 billion – £5 billion cuts are a drop in the ocean.
Reality: The scale of the overall budget doesn’t justify cuts that hurt the most vulnerable.
Most of that £326 billion goes on pensions. The £5 billion in cuts target working-age disabled people and the unemployed – the groups least able to absorb them.
It’s not the size of the budget that matters, it’s where the axe falls.
Claim: 35 per cent of people are on benefits. That’s not sustainable.
Reality: This statistic lumps in everyone from pensioners to part-time workers receiving tax credits.
The welfare state exists to support people in hardship, not punish them for existing.
The question isn’t how many claim benefits, but whether society is structured to reduce the need for them.
Claim: Employer NI isn’t paid by workers.
Reality: Basic economic theory (yes, Economics 101) shows that employer-side payroll taxes often reduce take-home pay or employment growth.
Businesses factor total labour costs into hiring decisions.
Raising corporation tax instead would target profits, not jobs.
But Labour chose the latter.
Claim: You want a communist state!
Reality: Wanting progressive taxation and fair redistribution isn’t communism.
It’s centre-left economics, common across developed democracies.
What we’re seeing from Labour is centre-right triangulation: austerity with a (stab at a) friendlier face.
So where is Labour now?
Despite claims to the contrary, Labour has moved rightwards:
This is not the party of 2017.
It isn’t even the party of 2020.
It’s a party obsessed with investor confidence and headlines in the Times, not transformational change.
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