The Cost Of Living Crisis Has Destroyed Young Women’s Futures - And Neither Main Political Party Is Doing Enough About It
It’s election time and lots of us are elated at the prospect of ending 14 years of disastrous Tory rule.
Rishi Sunak has presided over the first Parliament in modern history in which living standards have actually fallen. This comes on the back of the longest period of wage stagnation since the Napoleonic wars – the result of years of catastrophic austerity.
Today, the rate of absolute poverty in the UK stands at a shocking 18%. That means 12 million people in our country cannot afford to maintain a decent standard of living. Families have been disproportionately affected by rising prices, and a full quarter of all children now live in absolute poverty.
Since 2010, the NHS has undergone the longest funding squeeze in its history. Waiting lists for hospital treatment rose to a record level of 7.8 million in September 2023. The proportion of patients waiting more than four hours in A&E is now at 45%. Thousands of people are now waiting more than 12 hours for admission into A&E.
And it’s not just the NHS. Adult social care is in crisis, as private equity owned care homes try to cut costs to boost profits, and local authorities lack the resources to support those in need. Children’s social care is also in a perilous state — meaning the most vulnerable children in our society are left without the help they desperately need.
This is to say nothing of the slow-motion disasters taking place in education, criminal justice, and public health.
For many people across the UK, life at the moment feels like an endless struggle. Costs are spiralling, wages haven’t been keeping up, and it’s a constant battle to access the most basic services.
For women, the situation is even worse. Research from the Womens’ Budget Group has shown that women are more likely to live in poverty than men. One of the main reasons for this disparity is that single parents – the vast majority of whom are women – are far more likely to live in poverty than dual-income households.
Furthermore, young people have been utterly failed by successive Conservative governments. Those under the age of 40 have spent their entire adult lives dealing with poorly managed economic crises – as a result, millennials are set to be the first generation in modern history likely to be worse off than their parents. Not to mention we’ve got the climate crisis to contend with.
No wonder young people are desperate to get the Tories out. But the issue is that there doesn’t seem to be any real alternative.
Voters have plenty of issues with Sir Keir Starmer – from his assertion that the Israeli state had the right to cut off water and power to Gaza (a war crime under international law), to his parroting of the hard-right Tory lines on migration.
Many voters are holding their noses and supporting Labour anyway because they believe the Party might improve their economic situation. In particular, voters are more likely to trust the Labour Party to deal with the ongoing cost of living crisis, and to invest in public services.
But I’ve got bad news for those optimistic about a future Labour government’s approach to the economy. They’ve committed to managing the nation’s finances in exactly the same way as the Tories. Just ask the bond markets.
In an interview with the FT a few weeks ago, Andrew Balls, brother of Ed Balls and chief investment officer at the massive bond trading firm PIMCO said that both Labour and the Tories will have ‘very similar’ fiscal policy. In other words, investors in UK government debt expect very little change when the Tories hand over the reins to the Labour Party.
And an analysis of Labour’s policy agenda suggests bond investors are right to feel sanguine.
Labour’s fiscal rule commits the Party to balancing the books over the course of its first 5-year term, and the Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves has also pledged not to raise taxes on big businesses or the wealthy. Recently, Reeves has even announced that an independent government body will review all new spending by a future Labour government to determine whether it's sustainable.
These commitments mean that the Labour Party won’t easily be able to dedicate more money to increasing spending on public services or supporting families through the cost of living crisis – let alone invest in decarbonisation. Even the IFS has called Labour out for making ‘unrealistic promises’ when it comes to public spending.
Labour will maintain that they have no choice other than to adopt a tough approach to managing the nation’s finances. After 14 years of Tory rule, they will claim, there is no money left.
But this is simply not true. There is plenty of money left – it’s lining the pockets of the wealthy individuals and powerful corporations that have benefitted most from Conservative rule.
Fossil fuel companies, for example, have seen their profits skyrocket during the course of the cost-of-living crisis. Rather than investing these profits in transitioning towards clean energy, they have dished out billions to their investors.
Labour could easily raise corporation tax to ensure these higher profits are used to fund public decarbonisation efforts. The Labour Party could commit to raising taxation on capital gains and dividends so that wealthy investors also contribute their fair share. But Sir Keir Starmer is too timid to take on the corporate behemoths that have taken over our economy. Or maybe he’s just beholden to the same powerful vested interests that have taken over the Conservative Party.
It seems Labour is going to win the next election. The only question is, 'How big will their majority be?’ If its smaller than expected, they’ll realise they have to offer voters more than Tory policies just covered in a coat of red paint.
As a young woman sick to death of the failed economic policies of the last 14 years, I’m going to use my vote to tell the next Labour government that I’ve had enough. That’s why I’m voting Green. And if Labour want to win back my support, they have to commit to investing in public services, poverty reduction, and decarbonisation.
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