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Bell’s Newsletter
2nd October 2022
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Dear *|FNAME|*,
Last Friday, the Tories handed out £160 billion worth of tax giveaways to corporations and the super rich over the next five years. Where’s this money coming from? Straight out of our public services: out of schools, hospitals, people’s benefits, state pensions, and emergency services.
Even the financial markets recognised that running the economy for a handful of wealthy people isn’t a remotely credible strategy for growth. The pound is plummeting. Pension funds are under threat, mortgages are being withdrawn and prices are soaring even higher.
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Labour is calling on the Government to recall Parliament, reverse this millionaires’ budget and deliver real lasting support for households. The Tories are driving the economy off a cliff to put more money in the pockets of the super rich 1%. It’s time for a Labour Government that will stand up for the 99%.
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Enough is Enough
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Now more than ever, the country needs a Labour Government. But with the Tories launching an all-out offensive against working people, we can’t wait until the next election for action. Instead of listening to people struggling to afford basics like energy, food and rent, the Tories are handing out billions to corporations and the super rich. They’re taking us for mugs.
Yesterday I joined people up and down the country to demand real support for working people and say Enough is Enough. Speaking outside King’s Cross, I urged everyone to stand together, be bold, and keep demanding a real alternative.
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Labour Conference 2022
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I was up in Liverpool this week for the annual Labour Party Conference, talking to some of the members and movements that make up our party. It’s always good to discuss the issues facing our society and hone our solutions. Now more than ever, we need to push for policies to tackle inequality and hardwire economic and social justice into our economy.
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Labour Conference brought some welcome policy announcements. Among others, we saw commitments to bring rail back into public ownership, move to 100% clean power by 2030, create a sovereign wealth fund, insulate 19 million homes and build more council housing.
These policies put genuine distance between Labour’s aspirational vision for the country and the Conservatives’ increasingly unhinged attempts to lavish money on the very richest at the expense of everyone else. We have announced policies will start to address the crises we face – from the climate emergency to the housing crisis – and been rewarded with a commanding polling lead.
But if we’re going to address these issues in a way that leaves no one behind we’ll need to go further still. There were also some major policy commitments on the conference floor this year, with Labour members voting to renationalise Royal Mail, inflation-proof pay, a £15 an hour minimum wage and an end to NHS privatisation. As a mass membership party, Labour should be taking these up as policy.
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Standing with Striking Workers
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This week has brought another round of strike action, with workers standing up for real pay rises to cope with the cost of living crisis. Solidarity with members of Unite, the University and Colleges Union, the Communication Workers’ Union, and the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers.
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I was proud to join Labour colleagues on the picket line in Liverpool to show solidarity with striking dock workers, who are facing a real terms pay cut from another highly profitable company.
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College staff pay has lagged behind inflation by 35% since 2009, leaving many struggling. As they face another huge real terms pay cut this year, this Friday saw staff at thirty colleges launching strike action for better pay. I sent my solidarity to striking workers at Lambeth College in our constituency.
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Full solidarity with postal workers standing firm on the picket line this week and stepping up strike action against Royal Mail in response to the company’s attempts to impose real terms pay cuts, shred their terms and conditions and move towards derecognising their union. And like other workers, they deserve a real pay rise.
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It was great to see so many people turning out in support of striking rail workers over the weekend. Train companies paid shareholders almost £800,000,000 last year. Now they’re saying they have to cut rail workers’ pay and rip up terms and conditions just to stay afloat. Denying decent pay and job security only benefits greedy rail companies. But better conditions for workers means a better service for commuters.
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Meeting with Climate Campaigners
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Last year, the Government announced a Just Transition Energy Partnership to support South Africa’s push to decarbonise its economy. On Friday, I met with climate justice campaigners from Groundwork South Africa at the Friends of the Earth office in Stockwell to discuss progress on this scheme to date.
Campaigners are understandably worried about transparency and a lack of public participation, with South African civil society shut out of scrutiny of this deal so far. They want to know what conditions will be attached to this money. Money going to the global south cannot be used to fund fossil fuels; it must be conditional on renewable investment, with governments in the global south able to deliver on funding in a way that prioritises the people who live there.
They also made it clear to me that every single new oil and gas project licensed in the UK is a setback in the struggle for clean energy in South Africa and the wider global south. I’ll continue to scrutinise this partnership to ensure government green rhetoric becomes a reality and that it is delivered in a way that prioritises climate justice for the Global South ahead of corporate interests in the Global North.
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As ever, if you have any questions about the work I’m doing as MP, please get in touch at this address: bell.ribeiroaddy.mp@parliament.uk.
Best wishes,
Bell Ribeiro-Addy,
Labour MP for Streatham
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