{"id":1158219,"date":"2023-07-28T00:20:46","date_gmt":"2023-07-28T00:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/?p=142512"},"modified":"2023-07-28T00:20:46","modified_gmt":"2023-07-28T00:20:46","slug":"starmer-is-selling-labour-to-big-business-in-power-he-will-do-the-same","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/07\/28\/starmer-is-selling-labour-to-big-business-in-power-he-will-do-the-same\/","title":{"rendered":"Starmer is selling Labour to big business; in power he will do the same"},"content":{"rendered":"
What has happened to Britain\u2019s opposition Labour Party under Keir Starmer? The familiar adage \u201cfollow the money\u201d helps make sense of the party\u2019s policy shifts ever further rightwards.<\/p>\n
Labour plumbed new depths earlier this month\u00a0when it conceded that, in power, it would maintain the government\u2019s cap on child benefit, restricting financial help to the first two children<\/a> in a family.<\/p>\n The cap, one of the Conservatives\u2019 most socially regressive measures, was denounced as \u201cheinous<\/a>\u201d and \u201cobscene<\/a>\u201d by shadow cabinet ministers after it was introduced. Even Starmer called it \u201cpunitive<\/a>\u201d when he was trying to win over Labour members in the 2020 leadership vote.<\/p>\n Hundreds of thousands of children and their families are reported to have been driven below the breadline<\/a> since the benefit cap came into effect in 2017.<\/p>\n No other country<\/a>\u00a0in the world has a similar policy. But in Britain, punishing children is now a bipartisan issue.<\/p>\n It is just one of many progressive policies Starmer has ditched in recent months: from funding tuition fees to ending the so-called \u201cbedroom tax<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n The proffered excuse is always the same: that Britain cannot afford to care for its most vulnerable citizens. Or as Shadow Culture Secretary Lucy Powell put it<\/a>: \u201cThere just, frankly, is no money left.\u201d<\/p>\n And yet at the same time, Labour is tearing up its pledges to raise government revenue by increasing income tax on the rich<\/a> and by imposing a windfall tax on tech firms<\/a>.<\/p>\n