Letters: Politicians including Jeremy Corbyn and MPs from the Green party and Plaid Cymru respond to the chancellor’s plans. Plus a letter from Peter Riddle

Joint Statement from left leaning politicians criticising the new Budget.

Labour’s first budget punishes the “working people” they claim to support. Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves promised to deliver real change to the electorate, after 14 years of Tory rule. This week, they have broken that promise. This budget is austerity by another name.

While we welcome the government’s decision to invest in school and hospital buildings, it is extremely disappointing that these investments have been undermined by a swathe of public sector cuts, cruel attacks on the worst off, and a dogmatic refusal to redistribute wealth and power. These are not “tough choices” for government ministers, but for ordinary people who are forced to choose between heating their home and putting food on the table.

Labour is raising defence expenditure to 2.5% of GDP while telling us there is no money to lift 250,000 children out of poverty. This is a lie. There is plenty of money – it’s just in the wrong hands. The richest 1% in the UK hold more wealth than 70% of Britons. By refusing to impose a wealth tax, this government has chosen to force vulnerable communities to pay the price for years of economic failure, instead of making the richest pay their fair share. Labour’s first budget shows us whose side they’re on.

Years of austerity and privatisation have decimated our public services and pushed millions into poverty, disproportionately impacting women, people of colour and disabled people. Making millions of children, working, retired and disabled people poorer damages our entire economy and stretches our public services. An austerity economy is a false economy.

We, along with nearly 100 progressive Independent and Green politicians across the country, are calling on the Labour government to: 1) introduce wealth taxes; 2) abolish the two-child benefit cap and stop attacking welfare recipients; 3) reverse cuts to winter fuel; 4) restore the £2 bus cap; and 5) invest in a Green New Deal.

We refuse to believe that child poverty, mass hunger and homelessness are inevitable in the sixth largest economy in the world. A progressive movement is growing up and down the country, demanding a real alternative to this race to the bottom between Labour and the Tories, which has seen the new government perpetuate decades of austerity and rampant corporate greed.

The Tories’ collapse allowed Labour to come to power with the lowest vote share ever won by any single-party majority government. Labour haemorrhaging votes to progressive independents and Greens in their heartlands should be a lesson to this government: you are wrong to believe that progressive voters have nowhere else to go. Our movement is growing every day – and you ignore the demand for a real alternative at your peril.

– Jeremy Corbyn MP Independent, Carla Denyer MP Green party co-leader, Adrian Ramsay MP Green party co-leader, Sian Berry MP Green party, Ben Lake MP Plaid Cymru, Ann Davies MP Plaid Cymru, Liz Saville Roberts MP Plaid Cymru, Llinos Medi MP Plaid Cymru, Zack Polanski Green party deputy leader and London assembly member, Leanne Mohamad Independent candidate for Ilford North, Jamie Driscoll Former North of Tyne mayor, Andrew Feinstein Former ANC MP and Independent candidate for Holborn and St Pancras, Leanne Wood Former leader, Plaid Cymru, Beth Winter Former Labour MP for Cynon Valley, Hilary Schan Chair, We Deserve Better and Independent councillor in Worthing, Anthony Slaughter Wales Green party leader

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    19 days ago
    Signatories

    Signed,
    Jeremy Corbyn MP, independent
    Carla Denyer MP, Green Party Co-Leader
    Adrian Ramsay MP, Green Party Co-Leader
    Sian Berry MP, Green Party Leanne Wood, former leader of Plaid Cymru
    Liz Saville Roberts MP, Plaid Cymru
    Ben Lake MP, Plaid Cymru
    Llinos Medi MP, Plaid Cymru
    Ann Davies MP, Plaid Cymru
    Zack Polanski, Green Party Deputy Leader and London Assembly Member
    Leanne Mohamad, Independent candidate for Ilford North
    Jamie Driscoll, Leader of Majority and Independent former North of Tyne Mayor
    Andrew Feinstein, former ANC MP and independent candidate for Holborn & St Pancras
    Beth Winter, former Labour MP for Cynon Valley
    Cllr Hilary Schan, Chair of We Deserve Better and independent councillor, Worthing Borough Council
    Anthony Slaughter, Wales Green Party Leader
    Zoë Garbett, Green London Assembly Member and councillor, Hackney Council
    Caroline Russell, Green London Assembly Member and councillor, Islington Council
    Cllr Amna Abdullatif, independent, Manchester City Council
    Cllr Carl Walker, independent, Worthing Borough Council
    Cllr Suleman Khonat, independent, Blackburn Council
    Cllr Salim Sidat MBE, independent, Blackburn Council
    Cllr Mustafa Desai, independent, Blackburn Council
    Cllr Muntazir Patel, independent, Blackburn Council
    Cllr Salma Patel, independent, Blackburn Council
    Cllr Sajid Ali, independent, Blackburn Council
    Cllr Terry Mahmood, independent, Blackburn Council
    Cllr Imran Ahmed, independent, Blackburn Council
    Cllr Rana Gulistan, independent, Blackburn Council
    Cllr Mohamed Kapadia, independent, Blackburn Council
    Cllr Iqbal Masters, independent, Blackburn Council
    Cllr Waqar Hussain, independent, Blackburn Council
    Cllr Ammar Anwar, independent, Kirklees Council
    Cllr Tanisha Bramwell, independent, Kirklees Council
    Cllr Imran S Safdar, independent, Kirklees Council
    Cllr Emma Dent Coad, independent, Kensington and Chelsea Council
    Cllr Yvonne Tennant, independent, Pendle Borough Council
    Cllr Chris Davies, Green Party, South Tyneside Council
    Cllr Holly Wadell, independent, Northumberland County Council
    Cllr Benali Hamdache, Green Party, Islington Council
    Cllr Jonathan Elmer, Green Party, Durham County Council.
    Cllr Margaret Howard, independent, Worthing Borough Council
    Cllr Claire Hunt, Green Party, Worthing Borough Council
    Cllr Ian Davey, Green Party, Worthing Borough Council
    Cllr Penny Wrout, independent, Hackney Council
    Cllr Claudia Turbet-Delof, independent, Hackney Council
    Cllr Fliss Premru, independent, Hackney Council
    Cllr Alexi Dimond, Green Party, Sheffield Council
    Cllr Nick Hartley, Green Party, Newcastle City Council
    Cllr Mary Murphy, independent, Northumberland County Council
    Cllr Ray Sutton, independent, North West Leicestershire Council
    Cllr Sophia Naqvi, independent, Newham Council
    Cllr Mehmood Mirza, independent, Newham Council
    Cllr Zubair Gulamussen, independent, Newham Council
    Cllr Nathanial Higgins, Green Party, Newham Council
    Cllr Russell Whiting, independent, Gedling Borough Council
    Cllr Dr Hosnieh Djafari-Marbini, independent, Oxford Council
    Cllr Scott Ainslie, Green Party, Lambeth Council
    Cllr Sean Halsall, independent, Sefton Council
    Cllr Asima Shaikh, independent, Islington Council
    Cllr Ilkay Cindi-Oner, independent, Islington Council
    Cllr Phil Graham, independent, Islington Council
    Cllr Matt Nathan, independent, Islington Council
    Cllr Ani Stafford-Townsend, Green Party, Bristol City Council
    Cllr Ria Patel, Green Party, Croydon Council
    Cllr Khaled Musharraf, Green Party, Newcastle City Council
    Cllr James Crawford, Green Party, Bristol City Council
    Cllr Liam Davis, Green Party, Hackney Council
    Cllr Kerry Picket, Green Party, Brighton & Hove City Council
    Cllr Ernestas Jegorovas- Armstrong, Green Party, Islington Council
    Cllr Alastair Binnie-Lubbock, Green Party, Hackney Council
    Cllr Ben Foley, Green Party, Bedford Borough Council
    Cllr Habib Rahman, independent, Newcastle City Council
    Cllr Alan Gibbons, independent, Liverpool City Council
    Cllr Sam Gorst, independent, Liverpool City Council
    Cllr Lucy Williams, independent, Liverpool City Council
    Cllr Karen Davis, independent, Norwich City Council
    Cllr Cate Oliver, independent, Norwich City Council
    Cllr Pete Kennedy, Green Party, Stroud District Council
    Cllr Paul Barnett, independent, Hastings Borough Council
    Cllr Andy Batsford, independent, Hastings Borough Council
    Cllr John Cannan, independent, Hastings Borough Council
    Cllr Nigel Sinden, independent, Hastings Borough Council
    Cllr Mike Turner, independent, Hastings Borough Council
    Cllr Simon Willis, independent, Hastings Borough Council
    Cllr Hau-Yu Tam, independent, Lewisham Council
    Cllr Chloë Goldsmith, Green Party, Brighton & Hove City Council
    Cllr Raphael Hill, Green Party, Brighton & Hove City Council
    Cllr Lotte Collett, independent, Haringey Council
    Cllr Jane McCoid, independent, Gateshead Council