SADDLEWORTH councillors believe the government’s budget has given pensioners a ‘proverbial beating.’
One has even suggested Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer should jump into a black hole!
Conservatives Luke Lancaster and Max Woodvine voiced their displeasure at the Labour administration and its actions since winning the general election.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ budget only added to their anger, with Saddleworth South Cllr Woodvine citing it for ‘freezing pensioners to death.’
Saddleworth North colleague Cllr Lancaster adopted a more conciliary tone at a meeting of Oldham’ full council on Wednesday, November 6 as he asked the authority to say, ‘The Chancellor of the Exchequer has delivered a budget which will adversely impact the people who live in the Oldham Metropolitan Borough’ – but his feelings were clear.
He said: “The budget was sourced squarely from the socialist playbook, and I have every confidence in stating it will be bad for business, bad for Britain and bad for our borough, with poorer pensioners getting a proverbial beating too.
“Boom and bust was the Brownite inheritance for our country. This Chancellor only gives us worse still – gloom and bust.
“Repeatedly, prior to the election, Rachel Reeves and other Starmer devotees in the then-shadow cabinet toured the media rounds and categorically committed to no tax rises on working people.
“And yet, this budget takes from employers and entrepreneurs, family farmers, parents aspirational for their children’s education, those who manage assets and investments, users of public transport, among others.
“By any objective measure, working people will feel the brunt of this budget, and no political performance can conceal that fact from public view.
“Let us stand up for the strivers and those who have served society for the longest. Let us reject Rachel Reeves and her dangerous economic dogma.”
Cllr Woodvine, who started is speech by describing Donald Trump’s US election win by saying, ‘common sense has prevailed and President Trump represents strong conservative leadership for the western world,’ went further.
He said: “By stark contrast in this country it is self-evident that we have a weak and ineffective excuse for a Prime Minister.
“If there is indeed a black hole, Sir Keir should do us all a favour and jump in it.
“So much for change, it’s the same old Labour – freezing pensioners to death, letting criminals on to our streets, burdening students with bigger debts, spiralling costs of the welfare state, raising taxes on businesses, and reducing employment opportunities for all.
“Almost every promise made by Labour in their election campaign has been broken now that they’re in government and the first Labour budget in 14 years showcased some of the most deceitful decision making I have witnessed.
“Raising tax, running down reserves, and increasing borrowing – this is not a recipe for success as we have seen first-hand at this council as we head straight for bankruptcy.
“So much for supposedly being the party of working people. The Government has gone woke and before long I’m quite sure it will go broke.”
The motion tabled by Cllr Lancaster asking Oldham Council to register its dissatisfaction with the budget was defeated.
