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Category: austerity

  • Historic by-election win indicates Green Party could win over a hundred seats at next General Election

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    The Greens are on track to win over a hundred seats at the next general election, if the historic swing achieved to win Gorton and Denton is replicated nationwide.

    MP Hannah Spencer, Gorton & Denton February 2026

    Local candidate Hannah Spencer delivered a stunning by-election victory that more than tripled the party’s vote.

    In 2024 the Green Party secured just 13.2% of the vote in Gorton and Denton – one of Labour’s safest seats – but Hannah Spencer has achieved 40.7% of the vote, 14,980 votes, with a swing of 27.5%.

    New Green Party MP Hannah Spencer said: “I’m grateful, and thrilled, that the people of Gorton and Denton chose hope over hate and elected me as their new Green Party MP. 

    “This is the beginning of something massive.”

    Green Party leader Zack Polanski said: “If we see a swing like this at the next general election, there will be a tidal wave of new Green MPs. When I was elected Leader of the Greens I said we were here to replace Labour and I meant it. Hannah was a fantastic candidate and I know she’ll make a brilliant MP.”

    Hannah Spencer MP added: “I’m proud to have run a positive, inclusive campaign focused on the issues that matter most to local people: bringing down the cost of rent and bills, protecting the NHS, properly funding our public services, and ending Britain’s complicity in genocide. 

    “I’d like to thank everyone who voted for me. They know they can trust me and the Green Party to deliver on our promises.

    “I also want to thank the thousands of volunteers who gave their time, skills and energy to help us reach as many voters as possible with our message.

    “The Greens are the only party with a real plan to improve everyday life for the people in Gorton and Denton and across the country.”

    Zack Polanski added: “This used to be one of Labour’s safest seats. In this by-election almost half of their 2024 voters abandoned them and many switched to voting Green, meaning they finished 3rd. The Green Party saw a record-breaking swing in our direction and more than tripled our vote. 

    “Labour fought a shameful, dirty campaign – spreading lies about Green policies and even faking a tactical voting website. They knew they couldn’t win, but they risked splitting the vote and letting Reform in.

    “People everywhere will now know that voting Green is the way to defeat Reform. Many ex-Labour voters told our canvassers that they will never go back to a party that supports genocide, fuels racism, and has failed to deliver on its promise to improve life for people across the country.”

  • Ministers urged to go further on child poverty as MPs vote to end two child benefits cap

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/ministers-urged-go-further-child-poverty-mps-vote-end-two-child-benefits-cap

     Children playing football on the street in Luton, August 1, 2025

    MINISTERS were urged to go further to tackle child poverty as MPs voted on lifting the two-child benefit cap today.

    Labour has faced calls since they came to power in summer 2024 to scrap the Tory policy that restricts child tax credit and universal credit to the first two children in most households.

    Seven Labour MPs were suspended by the party after a backing an SNP motion to scrap the welfare measure in a vote in Parliament that year.

    The government had at the time cited spending controls as a reason for not being able to ditch the policy immediately, indicating there would be no change without economic growth.

    But following repeated calls from charities, campaigners and many of the party’s own MPs, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced in the autumn Budget last year that the government would move to scrap the policy from April.

    Addressing the Commons for the second reading of the Universal Credit (Removal of Two Child Limit) Bill today, Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said that the policy used children as pawns and was “all about the politics of dividing lines” between the “deserving and undeserving poor.”

    But Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside Kim Johnson said that she feared the Bill to remove the cap would never have happened without the campaigning of the End Child Poverty Coalition (ECPC) and National Education Union (NEU).

    She said: “It’s a shame that it has taken so long to reverse this draconian cap that was driving hundreds of families into poverty every single month.

    …

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/ministers-urged-go-further-child-poverty-mps-vote-end-two-child-benefits-cap

    Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
    Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
    Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership is intensely relaxed about assaulting those least able to defend themselves - the very poorest and most vulnerable.
    Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership is intensely relaxed about assaulting those least able to defend themselves – the very poorest and most vulnerable.
    Keir Starmer explains that he feels no shame or guilt benefitting personally from gifts from the rich and powerful while insisting on policies of severe austerity causing suffering and death.
    Keir Starmer explains that he feels no shame or guilt benefitting personally from gifts from the rich and powerful while insisting on policies of severe austerity causing suffering and death.

  • DWP actions blamed in string of claimant deaths, coroner reports reveal

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/dwp-actions-blamed-string-claimant-deaths-coroner-reports-reveal

    The suicide of Tamara Jade Logon after her disability benefits were wrongly withdrawn is the latest in a series of deaths in which coroners have cited DWP failings, exposing a pattern of preventable harm, says DYLAN MURPHY

    A DAMNING coroner’s report has concluded that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) played a significant role in the suicide of a vulnerable young woman, Tamara Jade Logon.

    This case is the latest in a deeply disturbing pattern of deaths where the DWP’s actions have been officially cited as a contributing factor, intensifying calls for a full independent inquiry into the department’s systemic safeguarding failures.

    …

    It is time to end the culture of secrecy and unaccountability that has allowed these tragedies to occur under both Tory and Labour governments.

    The Labour government must live up to its obligations under international human rights law and take action to stop the continuing abuses committed by the DWP against disabled people.

    The labour movement must help build a social security system based on dignity, trust and compassion, and ensure that the DWP is held responsible for its duty of care to every single claimant. The lives of the most vulnerable members of our society depend on it.

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/dwp-actions-blamed-string-claimant-deaths-coroner-reports-reveal

    Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership is intensely relaxed about assaulting those least able to defend themselves - the very poorest and most vulnerable.
    Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership is intensely relaxed about assaulting those least able to defend themselves – the very poorest and most vulnerable.

  • The Guardian view on long waits for disability benefits: the system should not push people closer to poverty

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    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/13/the-guardian-view-on-long-waits-for-disability-benefits-the-system-should-not-push-people-closer-to-poverty

    A protest at the Houses of Parliament in July 2025. Photograph: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing/Getty Image

    Long delays in processing personal independence payment (Pip) claims have become one of the most damaging and least defensible failures in the UK’s welfare system. Pip is designed to support disabled people with the additional costs of daily living and mobility, yet for many claimants it has instead become a source of prolonged uncertainty, financial hardship and distress. Waiting months – and in some cases more than a year – for a decision can push people into debt, rent arrears and poverty, especially as Pip unlocks other support such as carer’s allowance.

    Parliament has been sounding the alarm over the scale of the problem – but it appears the Department for Work and Pensions has its fingers in its ears. The stock response is that a new “health transformation programme” will lead to efficiency gains made by replacing paper Pip applications with an online claims system. Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the chair of the public accounts committee, last week pointed out that MPs had been told “three years ago that improvements would have manifested by now; we are now told that they are a further three years off”.

    …

    Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/13/the-guardian-view-on-long-waits-for-disability-benefits-the-system-should-not-push-people-closer-to-poverty

    Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership is intensely relaxed about assaulting those least able to defend themselves - the very poorest and most vulnerable.
    Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership is intensely relaxed about assaulting those least able to defend themselves – the very poorest and most vulnerable.

    Back on track ;)

  • ‘A blow to staff, patients, and local communities’

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/blow-staff-patients-and-local-communities

     A taped off section inside a school which has been affected with sub standard reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac)

    Campaigners dismayed as government plans to replace hospitals built with Raac delayed again

    FURTHER delays in replacing hospitals built with Raac concrete are a “blow” to NHS staff, as campaigners wanted to prevent the “severe risk of collapsing floors and ceilings.”

    The government’s spending watchdog announced today that a pledge to deal with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) in seven hospitals by 2030 would not be met.

    A report from the National Audit Office (NAO) found that the infrastructure plans, drawn up by the previous Conservative government, would only be completed by 2032 and 2033.

    Despite the new timeline, the NAO also claimed that some new building projects are already facing pressure to finish for their revised deadline.

    The watchdog also said that by the end of 2025, works to alleviate the risks of Raac have already cost more than £500 million.

    Campaigners and unions hit back, warning that longer delays will mean “greater risks” for patients and NHS staff, and will mean  “higher costs” to fix the issues plaguing NHS hospitals.

    Raac is a lightweight material which was used widely in the 1960s and ’80s to build public buildings such as hospitals and schools.

    …

    Continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/blow-staff-patients-and-local-communities