Pat McFadden, Cabinet Office minister, says changes to be announced today are about giving people ‘hope of work in the future’
Good morning. Nothing is permanent in politics. This year will be the 10th anniversary of Jeremy Corbyn’s election as Labour leader, in a contest where Liz Kendall, seen as the rightwing, Blairite candidate, came last, on a humiliating 4.5% of the vote. A decade on, Morgan McSweeney, who managed her campaign, is now more or less running the country as the PM’s chief of staff, Kendall herself is work and pensions secretary and she is about to announce cuts to disability benefits that may horrify many of the 59.5% who voted for Corbyn in 2015 (some of whom will no longer be party members).
Here is our overnight preview story, by Pippa Crerar, Heather Stewart and Jessica Elgot.
That is not the sort of society that we want to live in. I can’t understand why we’re making these types of decisions, whether it’s winter fuel cuts or looking at taking Pip away from people with disabilities.
Why are we making those decisions prior to us looking at things like a wealth tax, prior to us looking at things like a profits tax? The richest 50 families in Britain are worth £500bn. That’s the same as half the wealth of Britain. That’s the same as 33 million people in Britain.
Well, there are always going to be people who say [find the money] elsewhere.
We have a progressive tax system. The top 1% pay about a third of tax.
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