Theresa May’s speech: what the Prime Minister didn’t mention
by Theresa May addressed the Conservative party conference in Manchester today. While the Prime Minister focussed on holding together her divided government, she failed to mention the deep divisions her government is creating in society.
Here’s what the Prime Minister didn’t mention in her speech.
There are now four million children across the UK living in poverty and the UK is on course for the biggest increase in inequality since Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister.
According to the Resolution Foundation, Tory economic policies and cuts to welfare will lead to a rise in inequality to levels last seen in the 1980s.
By 2021, the total cumulative loss to people in Scotland as a result of Tory welfare cuts will be over £2 billion per year, according to researchers at Sheffield Hallam University.
The Tories still refuse to lift the public sector pay cap for all UK public servants, including those in Scotland.
In Scotland, the Scottish Government has announced that the 1 per cent public sector pay cap would be lifted, in recognition of the growing impact of Westminster austerity and cost-of-living increases.
The UK government has announced a piecemeal approach with increases for police and prison wardens only, funded from existing budgets.
The roll-out of the Tories flagship welfare reform, Universal Credit, has been a disaster.
The Tories are currently rolling out Universal Credit, which will replace several working age benefits, including tax credits and housing benefit.
The evidence so far is that it is causing unnecessary hardship for families in Scotland, who are falling behind in rent payments and increasingly relying on emergency support from the Scottish Welfare Fund. The SNP support a halt in the roll-out.
Theresa May’s government still won’t deliver women born in the 1950s the pensions they are due.
Women born in the 1950s were told by the UK government, with little time to plan, that they would have to continue to work until they were 65, losing years of state pension entitlement. The SNP has consistently supported the Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaign to right this wrong.