This week is the last of the summer parliamentary recess. And with an absence of current stories and intrigue from Parliament, the press has been focusing on the new government’s legacy of its first year in office.
To be frank, it’s even more dismal than I could possibly have feared.
Two topics have been leading the press wires: illegal migration, and the economy.
Keir Starmer came to office promising to “smash the gangs” and deal with the waves of illegal migrants arriving on our Dover beaches. The result? Numbers are up. Over 50,000 asylum seekers have arrived in the UK on small boats. The highest number over a year ever. Add to that asylum seekers who arrive legally, and the Home Office is now dealing with 111,000 new asylum seekers in since Labour came to office.
It is no surprise that people are angry. Epping council has successfully won a court case to evict migrants from The Bell Hotel, but these asylum seekers will have to be housed elsewhere. Add to that the pressure of housing successful asylum seekers, and councils across the country are having to deploy resources to support and house these people. It has to stop, and everyone seems to agree.
Meanwhile, I have been staggered by the glumness of businesses locally. Rachel Reeves attacked the productive end of our economy by taxing jobs. The result? 200,000 more people on the unemployment lists.
I won’t pretend Labour inherited a glorious legacy from Conservatives. But economic growth was up, and inflation down. Government debt had been hammered by the pandemic and war in Ukraine, but there was no £22 billion black hole, as claimed by the Chancellor.
Now, Rachel Reeves has dug her own £50 billion black hole. The government’s cost of borrowing has gone up. Inflation is up. Business and consumer confidence down. Economic growth slowing. All created by this hapless government. And the country now fears the next instalment of Labour’s economic mismanagement in the autumn budget.
Labour’s legacy is extraordinary. It first came to government in 1924, as a minority, for just 9 months. It didn’t mess things up then, but since then every single Labour government there has ever been has messed things up. Every one has slowed down the economy and increased unemployment. Every single one.
This latest Labour government is no exception. Indeed, it reminds me why I was so motivated to get into politics in the first place.
