LEAP calls on Chancellor to Break with Cuts Consensus

PRESS NOTICE:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

LEAP calls on Chancellor to Break with Cuts Consensus

As the Chancellor prepares to announce his Budget on Wednesday 24th March, LEAP has published its latest set of Red Papers ‘Breaking the Cuts Consensus’. LEAP is calling on the Chancellor to break with the cross-party cuts consensus and join the growing public consensus against cuts.

As well as analysing the flaws in the cuts consensus, the LEAP Red Papers offer concrete alternative policies.

John McDonnell MP, LEAP Chair, said:

“There is a consensus between the party leaderships that the people will pay, the financial system will largely remain unchanged and institutional reform will be at the margins. Bizarrely the argument goes that anything more radical than minor adjustments will lose the confidence of the very markets whose behaviour actually created the economic crisis in the first place.

“A programme of real reform is needed to take democratic control of our financial and economic institutions based upon the principles of public and common ownership.”

Andrew Fisher, LEAP Co-ordinator, said:

“Despite all the posturing, the reality is that there is very little difference between the parties. All are going into the election advocating major cuts to public services to reduce the deficit, and all are sharply critical of any group of workers who dare suggest that they should not be made redundant or that their pay or pensions should not be cut.

“We need an alternative economic agenda that puts people first. These Red Papers highlight the errors of the current orthodoxy and articulate some alternatives.”