Pre-Spring Statement comment from TSSA General Secretary Maryam Eslamdoust

Today’s Spring Statement from the Chancellor Rachel Reeves is as an opportunity to invest in working people across the UK and the green jobs and infrastructure of the future. At the heart of that must be the growth of our public transport network. We cannot afford to repeat the damaging austerity approach that wrecked our economy. 

And yet, in advance of the statement and at a time when our railways are rightly transitioning to public ownership, the Government has floated cuts and job losses under a future Great British Railways. The whole premise of public ownership is to reform our railways to serve the public, support rail workers, and boost the wider economy. The cuts and job losses discussed in the media are a false economy that undermine these goals.

Those who voted for Labour last year did so to end decades of Tory austerity and cashing living standards, not to punish some of the poorest and most vulnerable in our society. The proposed cuts to Personal Independence Payments, and the cancellation of free school meals for primary-aged children would be a betrayal to voters. These choices are not just economically short-sighted; they cruelly lash out at disabled workers and families. It is not what people vote for.

Rather than more austerity, Ministers should think again and address the country’s economic problems by taxing those who can afford to pay more – the super earners.  I urge Rachel Reeves to deliver a Spring Statement that delivers for TSSA members working hard every day to keep Britain moving.