Scots campaigners demand Jeremy Hunt ditches plans for billions in spending cuts
17.11.2022 - 08:11
/ dailyrecord.co.uk
Campaigners and Scots politicians have demanded Tory Chancellor Jeremy Hunt ditch plans for over £30bn of public spending cuts.
John Dickie of the Child Poverty Action Group said it would be "outrageous" to ask vulnerable people to shoulder the UK’s stricken public finances.
And STUC General Secretary Roz Foyer said another round of austerity would be a "shameful ploy from a shameful government".
Hunt will use his Budget to explain how an estimated £55bn black hole will be plugged.
Experts agree the disastrous decisions made by Liz Truss's short-lived government has added tens of billions to the sum the Chancellor has to find.
Around £35bn of the £55bn will likely come from public spending cuts and the rest from tax hikes
The prospect of more cuts has angered campaigners who believe another round of austerity will harm people on low incomes already reeling from sky high inflation.
Dickie said: “The Chancellor needs to urgently rethink the balance of spending cuts and tax rises. Many of us could afford to pay more tax but none of us can afford further cuts to the public services that all of us, and especially the poorest, rely on.
“It would be outrageous to ask those struggling the most to shoulder any more of the burden of fixing the public finances.
“The Chancellor must bring forward a budget that doesn’t just uprate benefits in line with inflation but reverses the cuts to family support that have left children brutally exposed to the health and economic shocks of the last few years."
The Scottish Parliament receives a block grant from Whitehall and cuts would reduce the amount of money for public services.
Foyer, the country’s most senior trade unionist, said: “In an economic disaster of the Tories own making, working people