Labour have broken their promise to cover the public sector for any National Insurance (NI) increases. No wonder Labour Councillors on the City Council voted to block our request, as Conservative Councillors, to know the full local cost of the NI increase back in January. Labour chose to try and hide the figures in some half-baked attempt to cover up for their government and the disastrous policy of introducing a tax on working people.
Labour Councillors' attempts to keep the figure secret didn't last long. Only a few weeks later, during a committee meeting, we discovered that the council was short by £1.1 million. I'd imagine tough words were exchanged between Labour Councillors and council officers following this revelation, so desperate was the Labour Council to hide the facts from the public.
The government had covered some of the NI increase, but not all, leaving the council to find another £1.1 million this year—in addition to their £16.8 million bailout request from the government (meaning Labour councillors will have had a total bailout of £56,800,000 since taking control of the council in May 2023).
The £1.1 million NI shortfall is made worse by the Labour government and our local Labour MPs' failure to give enough money for the NI increase to our local police and fire services. Their total shortfall is £620,000, with Staffordshire Police short £400,000 and Staffordshire Fire & Rescue short £220,000.
Then, there is a low financial settlement for local GP surgeries, which also face the pressures of the NI increase. A report conducted at the end of last year revealed that more than two million GP appointments will be at risk of being cancelled due to the increase in NI. Simply put, Labour's double-broken promise of covering the costs for public services and lower financial settlements for these organisations will hit every frontline service in the country.
Is it any wonder that our economic outlook is growth of only 1% in the coming year? This is a worrying sign of the impact of Labour's policies on our local economy.
These higher taxes are hitting us all. Whilst public services have only been partially reimbursed, the private sector faces no such cushion. The sad news that the Royal Stafford Pottery is one of the latest high-profile businesses to hit the wall is another example of disastrous economic policies from the Labour Party. Net-zero taxes, removal of tax reliefs for the hospitality sector and the NI increase all contributed to this latest historic business going bust, with the sad loss of jobs and skills in our city.
Again, we, as Conservative Councillors, highlighted this to Labour Councillors back in January, warning that ceramic companies were particularly vulnerable to the NI increases, as NI impacts the hospitality sector—the main customer of ceramic businesses in the city. And what did our Labour Councillors do? They voted against raising these concerns with the government.
As a country, we are poorer than any state in the United States of America. Mississippi, the poorest of the US states, is more prosperous than we are. The Labour government's priority for growth is just an empty slogan. Their promise in the general election not to raise taxes on working people was an empty promise. The NI increase is already hurting local businesses and the public sector. The NI increase is another pressure on council services when the Labour Council asks for their second bailout in as many years. The current direction of travel is unsustainable. You cannot grow an economy with a high tax and high debt base.
