![\"Rishi](\"https:\/\/peoplesdispatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Sunak-scaled.jpg\")
<\/div>\nAt a time when over 11 million people in the UK are expected<\/a> to fall into fuel poverty and thousands are going hungry, the wealthiest member of the House of Commons has been appointed prime minister. 42-year-old Rishi Sunak assumed office on Tuesday, October 25, a day after being chosen as the leader of the ruling Conservative Party. The former banker is the UK\u2019s third prime minister this year, after his predecessor Liz Truss resigned<\/a> after just 45 days in office.<\/p>\n Delivering his first address outside 10 Downing Street on Tuesday, Sunak stated<\/a> that the country was facing a \u201cprofound economic crisis\u201d and while \u201csome mistakes were made\u201d during Truss\u2019 tenure, he had been \u201celected\u201d to fix them. \u201cI will place economic stability and confidence at the heart of this government\u2019s agenda. This will mean difficult decisions to come,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n This was similar to the statements made by now re-appointed Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who warned of \u201cdecisions of eye-watering difficulty.\u201d The burden of this \u201cdifficulty\u201d and the need to \u201ctighten belts\u201d \u2013 which can only mean more cuts and austerity \u2013 will ultimately be borne by the poor and the working class, and the consequences can be deadly.<\/p>\n A study released by the Glasgow Centre for Population Health and the University of Glasgow earlier in October attributed<\/a> a shocking 335,000 excess deaths to the austerity policies imposed by Tory governments between 2012 and 2019.<\/p>\n The personal wealth of Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty stands at $830 million. Meanwhile, wages in the UK have fallen at the fastest rate in over two decades and inflation driven by high food prices has reached a 40-year-high.<\/p>\n Sunak has not made any concrete statements about his economic plans \u2013 both in his 84-second speech after securing the Tory leadership and in his nearly six-minute address on Tuesday. However, the pro-austerity and pro-rich agenda of his government is evident in his appointments to the cabinet, particularly Hunt.<\/p>\n While pledging to build \u201ca stronger NHS [National Health Service],\u201d Sunak has put the man responsible for much of its collapse in charge of the country\u2019s economy. During his stint as health secretary between 2012-2018 \u2013 the longest in NHS history \u2013 Hunt oversaw<\/a> the slowest period of investment in the NHS, approximately 1%, when the Office of Budget Responsibility had recommended 4.3%. The time spent by patients waiting to access Accident and Emergency (A&E) services grew significantly<\/a> under his tenure, the number of hospital beds declined as bed occupancy rates hit record levels, treatments were restricted, and A&E and maternity units were closed. Hunt pushed for privatization, extended the cap on pay increases for NHS workers, and imposed a contract on junior doctors following a series of historic strikes in 2016.<\/p>\n Now, for the first time ever, the list of people waiting for NHS treatment has reached<\/a> seven million and the number of people waiting in A&E is at the highest level since the record began in 2010. Several hospitals are in danger of physical collapse<\/a> or have come under increasing strain<\/a> due to the recent surge in COVID-19 cases.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the government has delayed the presentation of its fiscal statement, which will include details of impending cuts, from October 31 to November 17. The pro-austerity push is not likely to face resistance from Sunak, who was the chancellor under the Boris Johnson government in 2021 when the UK saw the \u201cbiggest overnight cut\u201d in social security benefits since the end of the Second World War. Johnson\u2019s government scrapped the \u00a320 ($23) per week uplift in universal credit, despite various analyses showing that the cut would impact around six million people, and 500,000 more people, including 200,000 children, would additionally be pushed<\/a> into poverty.<\/p>\n With inflation at a multi-decade high in the early months of 2022, it was predicted that families in the UK could witness the largest annual decline in their living standards since the 1950s. The crisis would<\/a>disproportionately impact poor households.<\/p>\n Against this backdrop, then-Chancellor Sunak unveiled a \u201cmini-Budget\u201d in March. The budget statement introduced some tax cuts, including a 5p (5 cents) per liter reduction in fuel duty and a \u00a33,000 ($3,470) increase in the threshold for national insurance contributions. The mini-budget was however widely condemned<\/a> for failing to shield poorer families from the mounting cost of living crisis.<\/p>\n The think tank Resolution Foundation found<\/a> that under the budget provisions, only one in eight workers will actually witness a decline in their tax bills by 2024. Importantly, it warned that 1.3 million people, including 500,000 children, would fall below the poverty line by 2023. This would be the highest number of people falling into poverty outside of a recession. Additionally, the income of the poorest households would decline by 6%.<\/p>\n \u201cThe big picture is that Rishi Sunak has prioritized rebuilding his tax-cutting credentials over supporting the low-to-middle income households who will be hardest hit from the surging cost of living,\u201d noted Resolution Foundation\u2019s chief executive Torsten Bell.<\/p>\n Writing in the Morning Star<\/i>, Labour MP Diane Abbott warned<\/a> that the budget contained an \u201cenormous tax giveaway to big business\u201d alongside cuts on government spending, amounting to \u00a327 billion ($31.3 billion).<\/p>\n In July, Sunak stepped down as chancellor amid a slate of resignations that ultimately forced Johnson out of office and cleared the way for him to contest the election for Tory leadership.<\/p>\n In August, anger grew after a video showing Sunak telling Conservative party members in Tory-majority Tunbridge Wells in Kent that the government had \u201cinherited a bunch of formulas from Labour that shoved all the funding into deprived urban areas that needed to be undone. I started the work of undoing that.\u201d A few months prior, analysis by the Guardian <\/i>had found<\/a> that affluent parts of England, including those areas represented by government ministers, had received up to 10 times more funding per capita compared to the poorest.<\/p>\n Back in May, Sunak, in his capacity as chancellor, had pledged that benefits would rise at pace with the rate of inflation. However, as prime minister, Sunak refused to confirm if he would act on the pledge when the question came up in the parliament on October 26 \u2013 at a time when inflation has reached 10.1%.<\/p>\n The government has similarly not committed to a triple-lock on pensions, under which state pensions will increase by whichever is highest \u2013 inflation, average earning, or 2.5%, something former prime minister Liz Truss had agreed to implement.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, in his address on Tuesday, Sunak pledged to deliver on the Conservative Party\u2019s 2019 election manifesto, including the \u201ccontrol of our borders.\u201d<\/p>\n On his first day as prime minister, he re-appointed Suella Braverman as home secretary, cementing the government\u2019s hardline anti-immigration agenda<\/a>. The move sparked major outrage, given that Braverman had been forced to resign just days before for a breach of the ministerial code.<\/p>\n Sunak and Braverman have vehemently backed the government\u2019s widely-condemned deportation agreement<\/a> with Rwanda, which is currently under judicial review. Born to immigrant families of Indian origin, both leaders have reinforced racist and xenophobic ideas of the \u2018acceptable\u2019 or \u2018deserving\u2019 migrant \u2013 those who come to the UK through \u201clegal and controlled<\/a>\u201d migration and \u201cembrace British values,\u201d or those who came to the UK \u201cbecause<\/a> the British Government had decided that it wanted them to come here.\u201d These are contrasted with those who \u201cabuse the system\u201d<\/a> or \u201cput pressure on housing, public services, and community relations,\u201d and people who \u2018lie\u2019 about being victims of modern slavery.<\/p>\n Sunak and Braverman have supported reducing the number of migrants arriving in the UK. Among the most worrisome aspects of their immigration stance is their commitment to reforming the existing protections for asylum seekers, including provisions that fall under the European Convention on Human Rights.<\/p>\n Rights campaigners have also warned of the revival of the Bill of Rights with the reinstatement of Dominic Raab as justice secretary. The legislation, dubbed as the \u201cRights Removal Bill\u201d<\/a>, will scrap the Human Rights Act, allowing UK courts to disregard the rulings issued by the European Court of Human Rights, and making it much harder<\/a> for oppressed and marginalized groups to seek justice.<\/p>\n Sunak and Braverman also support the UK\u2019s notorious \u201ccounterterrorism\u201d strategy, PREVENT, with Sunak pledging to expand the definition of extremism to include those who \u201cvilify Britain.\u201d He has said that Islamic extremism is the \u201csingle largest threat to the UK\u2019s national security,\u201d and vowed to audit publicly funded charities and organizations to \u201cweed out\u201d those who support extremism.<\/p>\n A landmark review of PREVENT released in February concluded<\/a> that the strategy was not only ineffective, but also had a \u201cdiscriminatory and disproportionate\u201d impact on Muslim communities. Based on around 600 testimonies, the report warned that the strategy involved \u201cserious potential breaches of Children\u2019s Rights and Human Rights\u201d and subjected children as young as those in nursery and primary school to \u201can extraordinary net of surveillance.\u201d<\/p>\n Sunak and Braverman have come into office as the ruling Conservative Party systematically dismantles the right to dissent. One such attempt in this direction is the draconian Public Order Bill which is now headed to the House of Lords for a vote.<\/p>\n The legislation brings back previously rejected provisions of the Police, Crimes, Sentencing and Courts Act that came into force in June, dramatically expanding policing powers. The Public Order Bill contains a slate of measures attacking the right to protest, including offenses related to \u201cserious disruptions,\u201d \u201cinterfering with national infrastructure,\u201d and \u201clocking on.\u201d<\/p>\n In a year of historic labor uprisings across several sectors, the government has also taken aim at trade union rights, including the right to strike. Just as the Rail, Maritime, and Transport (RMT) union is gearing up for a wave of walkouts, the Transport Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill<\/a> has been published, restricting strikes in the transport sector. Sunak and Braverman will now oversee a vote on the bill.<\/p>\n In July, the UK adopted a law making it easier for businesses to hire temporary workers during strikes. Concerns have also grown over a mammoth post-Brexit legislation proposed by MP Jacob Rees-Mogg to do away with 2,400 laws which include key workers\u2019 rights related to equal pay and pensions.<\/p>\n These massive changes will take place under a prime minister who does not have a mandate.<\/p>\n As the Tory government moves forward with its attacks on the working class and marginalized groups, progressive forces and trade unions in the UK have vowed to resist.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Friends & Colleagues, \u00a0 The Western world\u2019s war on the poor and the working class continues apace. Indeed, it is accelerating and expanding with the Anglo-Saxon tandem of the United States and Britain blazing the trail. The newest arrival at … Continue reading Continuation of austerity<\/b><\/h3>\n
Multi-pronged attack on basic rights\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n
The Western world\u2019s war on the poor and the working class continues apace. Indeed, it is accelerating and expanding with the Anglo-Saxon tandem of the United States and Britain blazing the trail. The newest arrival at Number 10 in Whitehall is a fascinating reminder that the coloration of the latest marionette to occupy the position of Prime Minister is far less important than the machinations of the power elite which pulls the strings \u2013 and acts as ventriloquist. The attached article is a succinct summary of what\u2019s happening in This Blessed Realm<\/em>. It\u2019s not pretty. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n