“Doing well for who? Would be the question that I would ask.”
Paul Nowak hit back at Telegraph columnist Tim Stanley’s claim on BBC Question Time that the economy was ‘doing ok’ when Labour came to power in July 2024.
Stanley dismissed the idea that Labour inherited an “absolutely dreadful” economic situation, stating “the economy was doing ok, the deficit was under control, there was some growth”.
The journalist took a swipe at Reeves’ decision to raise taxes, arguing it had suppressed growth.
In response, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) said: “I want to go back to the comment that Tim made where he said the economy was doing quite well when the government came in.”
To applause from the audience, he added: “Doing well for who? Would be the question that I would ask.”
Nowak said that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) may have been going up, but that most people were “in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis”.
“Wages were stagnant, living standards were falling, hundreds of thousands of people every week were going to food banks,” he said.
The TUC boss said that when he was growing up in Merseyside in the 80s and 90s, people who were poor were unemployed.
“Now we’ve got millions of people who go to work every single day and who still struggle to get by,” Nowak said, leading to another round of applause from the audience.
Referring to an audience member’s comment that 3 in 10 children in the North-east are living in poverty, Nowak said 70% of those families have at least one parent who goes out to work.
“So they’re doing the right thing, but they’re still struggling to get by,” he said.
Nowak said that the government should invest in “our vital public services” including the NHS, schools and prisons. He also said Labour should tackle the cost-of-living crisis and energy bills, and lift the two-child benefit limit.
Host Fiona Bruce asked: “Where should the money come from?”.
To yet more applause, he said: “I think it’s time to tax wealth in this country, not workers.”
Nowak went on to say: “I’ll tell you for why. At the same time millions of people are struggling to pay their energy bills, and hundreds of thousands of people are using food banks, we registered a record number of supercars, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Bugattis, last year in the UK.”
“The year before, Porsche had its record year for sales in the UK.”
“That’s good,” shouted Stanley.
Nowak said: “I don’t begrudge anyone a decent car, but there are clearly some people who were not living through the cost of living crisis.”
The trade union leader also said that the government should tax windfall profits, pointing out that the UK’s big four banks have been making £1 billion a week in profits this year.
“What did the Conservatives do in 2023? They cut the bank taxes.”
To a groan from Conservative MP Graham Stuart, Nowak said: “It’s time we ask those with the broadest shoulders to pay a fairer share.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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