“Who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others?” According to the latest release from the Mandelson Files, that question is at the heart of this Labour government’s mission.
The thousands of documents and messages released about disgraced former UK ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson have fuelled much gossip and party psychodrama. But finally, they have also provided us with an honest admission of what Labour really wants.
WhatsApp messages between Mandelson and now Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden from May last year reveal that the overriding question of Whitehall meetings was how Keir Starmer’s government could raise taxes to help fund the welfare state: “Who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others?”. This was the case in “every meeting I have,” McFadden told Mandelson, and lamented that “they're asking the wrong questions."
This is apparently the priority of Labour MPs - not helping working people hang on to more of their wages, but trying their utmost to give it away. If it wasn’t clear enough already, this should be confirmation that Labour is the party of welfare, not work.
All this government has done is throw working people under the bus. Whether it’s pursuing Net Zero targets that drive up energy bills, launching tax raids on family farms or relying on mass, unskilled immigration for cheap work, Labour has made its priority perfectly plain. And it’s certainly not the hardworking people of this country.
Can Labour really be surprised, then, that working-class voters are abandoning the party en masse? As we learnt this week, trade union members are now just as likely to support Reform UK as Labour. The consequence of this could be seen in the May local elections - when Reform UK turned the Red Wall turquoise, taking over Labour’s traditional heartlands in the North East, the North West, Yorkshire and the West Midlands.
Labour has taken working people for granted for too long. It has taxed them, ignored them, and lectured them - all while expecting their undying loyalty in return. Behind closed doors, Labour ministers schemed to take as much of your hard-earned money as they could. And don’t just take our word for it - this admission came from the mouth of the now Work and Pensions Secretary.
The hard-working people of alarm-clock Britain are now rightly asking who will finally stand up for them. The answer can only be Reform UK.
The thousands of documents and messages released about disgraced former UK ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson have fuelled much gossip and party psychodrama. But finally, they have also provided us with an honest admission of what Labour really wants.
WhatsApp messages between Mandelson and now Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden from May last year reveal that the overriding question of Whitehall meetings was how Keir Starmer’s government could raise taxes to help fund the welfare state: “Who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others?”. This was the case in “every meeting I have,” McFadden told Mandelson, and lamented that “they're asking the wrong questions."
This is apparently the priority of Labour MPs - not helping working people hang on to more of their wages, but trying their utmost to give it away. If it wasn’t clear enough already, this should be confirmation that Labour is the party of welfare, not work.
All this government has done is throw working people under the bus. Whether it’s pursuing Net Zero targets that drive up energy bills, launching tax raids on family farms or relying on mass, unskilled immigration for cheap work, Labour has made its priority perfectly plain. And it’s certainly not the hardworking people of this country.
Can Labour really be surprised, then, that working-class voters are abandoning the party en masse? As we learnt this week, trade union members are now just as likely to support Reform UK as Labour. The consequence of this could be seen in the May local elections - when Reform UK turned the Red Wall turquoise, taking over Labour’s traditional heartlands in the North East, the North West, Yorkshire and the West Midlands.
Labour has taken working people for granted for too long. It has taxed them, ignored them, and lectured them - all while expecting their undying loyalty in return. Behind closed doors, Labour ministers schemed to take as much of your hard-earned money as they could. And don’t just take our word for it - this admission came from the mouth of the now Work and Pensions Secretary.
The hard-working people of alarm-clock Britain are now rightly asking who will finally stand up for them. The answer can only be Reform UK.
