TUC calls for fair tax and growth

18 Oct 10
The Trades Union Congress today made a last-ditch plea to the government to base its spending cuts on ‘fair tax and policies that promote growth’
By Lucy Phillips

19 October 2010

The Trades Union Congress today made a last-ditch plea to the government to base its spending cuts on ‘fair tax and policies that promote growth’.

On the day before the Spending Review is published, TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said the coalition’s cuts programme was ‘a political choice, not an economic necessity’.

Speaking at a rally in central London, Barber said: ‘The biggest contribution to reducing the deficit in any conceivable plan comes from economic growth.

‘The UK is a hard-working country that can generate the tax that can fill the deficit gap, that can create jobs that a lost generation of young people need, and that can meet the challenges that we face as a society – from moving to a low-carbon economy to eliminating child poverty.’

Barber accused the government of ignoring alternatives for deficit reduction. ‘The government deliberately chose to meet 80% of its target by spending cuts, and not by tax. And that means making Britain a more unequal, more squalid and nastier country, as a deliberate policy.’

He continued: ‘What ministers plan is not inevitable. It’s their political choice and it’s our democratic duty to wage the strongest political campaign of our lifetimes for a change of course. And it starts today.’

Unite general secretary Tony Woodley and Unison general secretary Dave Prentis were also among the speakers at the rally, entitled All Together for Public Services.

Woodley warned that the coalition’s intention to cut public spending by between 25% and 40% would destroy three private sector jobs for every four public sector jobs that were lost.  

‘The coalition has no brief for the devastation it is about to unleash on this country. Cuts on this scale make no sense,’ he told the rally.

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