Pensioners cutting back on hot meals because of the winter fuel allowance cut. Parents struggling to put food on the table because of the two-child benefit cap. More and more disabled people living in poverty every year, not getting the support that they need from the government.

This is the reality for too many people across the UK today. Years of low pay, high bills and cuts to vital support for those who need it have left families and communities at breaking point.

This government came into power promising to change that. To lower bills, to make it easier for people to get by, to breathe life back into our communities.

But what we’ve seen over the last few months is the opposite – a litany of betrayals from a Labour party that has turned its back on ordinary people.

Winter fuel payments cut from 10 million pensioners. No change to the cruel, punishing two-child benefit cap. Energy bills still rising. Rents spiralling.

Meanwhile, chancellor Rachel Reeves has watered down plans to crack down on the non-dom tax status that allows the super-wealthy to avoid paying tax in the UK, and the government has backed climate-wrecking airport expansion that will benefit primarily the richest in society.

Now we hear there are plans to reduce welfare spending that has already been cut to the bone. Let’s be clear: this is a political choice, one that will wreck lives and push people already struggling deeper into financial insecurity. It will make it harder for people to feed their children, to keep a roof over their head, to get the help they need for health conditions or disabilities.

Disabled people are already terrified of the impact these cuts could have on them, writing of being “petrified” of changes to the system, warning that they would have to cut back on food, or could risk losing their home.

The UK is the sixth richest country in the world – how is it that this government is willing to see so many people go without the basic necessities of life?

This isn’t the first morally reprehensible decision from this government even in recent weeks. Just last week, the prime minister announced that an increase to the defence budget would be funded by a massive cut to foreign aid. This plan is not just cruel, snatching away support from the people across the world who need it most, but counter-productive – we know that overseas development is absolutely crucial to a safer world for all of us.

But it’s becoming increasingly clear that this government is content to balance the books on the backs of those who can least afford to bear the cost – both here in the UK and in some of the world’s poorest countries – while leaving the super-rich to hoard more and more of the country’s wealth.

In 2024, the UK’s billionaires increased their collective wealth by a staggering £35 million every day. Five UK energy companies have racked up a total of £240 billion in profits since 2020. The profit margins of UK corporations have soared 30% since before the pandemic.

The money is there – but time and time again this government has chosen to make life harder for ordinary people rather than make the super rich and big businesses pay their fair share. Patriotic Millionaires, a group of high-wealth individuals who want to be taxed fairly, estimate that a 2% wealth tax on assets over £10 million would raise up to £24 billion a year.

That wouldn’t cover everything we need in this changing world, and there’s plenty more we could do to fix our broken economy. But it’s a much better place to look for funding than the pockets of those who already have very little.

Politics is about choices – and this government is making all the wrong ones. I know I’m not the only MP who is appalled by plans to strip benefits from disabled people, and I will work with anyone else who feels the same to stop these cuts from going through.

Carla Denyer is the MP for Bristol Central and co-leader of the Green Party