Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) conference at the QEII Centre, London, November 25, 2024
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Leading left MP and former shadow chancellor John McDonnell issued the warning to Rachel Reeves as the Chancellor returned from her China trip to confront the bond market crisis.
Mr McDonnell, presently suspended from the Labour whip for opposing the cruel two-child benefit cap, told BBC radio: “There is obviously a problem.
“There’s turbulence in the international markets, and we’ve just got to see those through.
“You don’t turn to cuts, certainly, because not only will that be politically suicidal, that would undermine the political support upon which Labour got elected.
“In addition to that, you would be taking demand out of the economy, and you would be looking at turning a crisis into a recession.
“So I think you just have to see through the turbulence in the markets.”
Mr McDonnell also reminded the government that voters matter more than markets.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting meeting staff during a visit to London Ambulance Service headquarters in south London, December 9, 2024
Campaigners warn Labour’s ‘pro-business approach to data’ has ‘potential for further loss of public trust’ in the NHS
HEALTH Secretary Wes Streeting’s plans to sell GP data to the private sector “make no sense,” warned experts raising fresh privacy concerns yesterday.
Campaigners also warned Labour’s “pro-business approach to data” had the potential for further loss of public trust in the health service.
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Mr Streeting in October said that data “is the future of the NHS” and Britain “could lead the world in medical research.”
He plans to create a “single access system” for information from GP surgeries, hospitals and other care settings after NHS England awarded a controversial £330 million contract to US spy tech giant Palantir in 2023 to develop a new platform.
Today Keep Our NHS Public co-chair Dr John Puntis said: “The Data Use and Access Bill currently going through Parliament illustrates Labour’s pro-business approach to data as a valuable resource, and highlights the potential for further loss of public trust.
“It aims to make data, including our personal heath data, widely available to public authorities and the private sector.
“The Secretary of State will be given power to erode safeguards over use of personal data for research.
“Labour intends to reduce the regulatory burden on businesses at the expense of safeguards for citizens.
“An alternative vision would include investment in a publicly owned national digital infrastructure aimed at storing and managing NHS data currently being processed through cloud computing services that are owned by large technology companies.
“There must be safeguards against the private sector gaining access to data for profit, and the public should be fully informed about the use of people’s health data and the right to protection and privacy.”
A spokesman for Momentum said: “Selling off patients’ data is no way to fix the NHS.
“We must fully renationalise our healthcare system and defend it from corporate interests, not welcome them.”
Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves wear the uniform of the rich and powerful. They have all had clothes bought for them by multi-millionaire Labour donor Lord Alli. CORRECTION: It appears that Rachel Reeves clothing was provided by Juliet Rosenfeld.
On a different topic, I’d like to thank my anonymous benefactor for my gifts. I got a jumper and a huge box of chocolates from Amazon – I somehow doubt that they were from Jeff Bezos. I don’t expect presents from anyone but anonymous is the rule if you do. Years ago I wouldn’t have spirits in the house because I was scared that I would drink them all. I’m very glad that I’ve overcome that and don’t often drink much, seem to have that issue with chocolate now. 11.35pm GMT Forgot to say that I’m also quite happy with pre-owned ;) X
MORE than six million workers’ pension pots are at risk under Treasury plans to create so-called “megafunds” to siphon off into national infrastructure projects, GMB warned today.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said she wants to pool assets from the 86 separate local government pension schemes (LGPS) into eight funds, worth about £50 billion, by 2030.
She is due to announce her plans, which the government claims will be part of the “biggest pension reforms in decades,” in her inaugural Mansion House speech as Chancellor before City leaders tonight.
Alongside these are plans to combine smaller defined-contribution schemes across the country into pools of £25bn to £50bn.
GMB union has raised “strong reservations” over the annoucements, warning megafunds should not be used as “slush funds” for the Treasury.
The LGPS represents one of the world’s largest defined-benefit schemes, with 6.5 million members and some £360bn in assets.
GMB national pensions organiser George Gergiou told the Morning Star: “Our view is the Treasury have seen that and said we want a bit of that to fund some of our great infrastructure projects.
“This is not spare money, this is not a slush fund for people to dip into.”
IT is no surprise that so many big business leaders have come out in support of the Labour Party.
It reflects two things. One is the banal fact that Labour looks like winning, and it does corporate leaders no harm at all to be able to say “I backed you at the election” when sitting down opposite ministers in a couple of months’ time to beg for assistance of one sort or another.
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Keir Starmer and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves have bent over backwards to place themselves in the service of monopoly capitalism.
That has been reflected in their rhetoric, pledging the “most business-friendly government” in British history, which is a very high hurdle, but is a clear indication of their aspiration.
Sometimes this is extended by a commitment to be “pro-worker and pro-business” as if there were never a conflict between the two.
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As Unite’s Sharon Graham says, Labour’s New Deal for Working People now “has more holes than a Swiss cheese.” One can only hope that unions will be able to plug some of those gaps in Labour’s manifesto negotiations.
But the pro-capitalist turn goes much wider than safeguarding the bosses’ sacred right to exploit labour. It has permeated all aspects of the Starmer-Reeves approach.
The 120 signatories to the Labour-backing letter will have noticed that their corporation tax rate is not going to rise under Reeves.
They will have noticed that there is to be no wealth tax — of the kind Starmer once promised — under the impending Labour dispensation.
They will have noticed that outside a railway sector already under semi-control by the state, there is to be no extension of public ownership.
And they have noticed that despite the campaign slogan of “change” in fact Labour is offering nothing of the sort, but rather “economic stability.” That might have marked a point of divergence from the excitable Liz Truss but it hardly differs from Rishi Sunak, whose election boast is that he has restored — economic stability.
