DERRY MP Colum Eastwood has described a decision by the British Government to introduce further cuts to social security in the Spring Statement as ‘fundamentally wrong.
Mr Eastwood said that forcing tens of thousands of children and hundreds of thousands of adults into poverty to balance the government’s books was a price that no Labour government should ever be prepared to pay.
The Foyle MP was speaking after the British Government published its own impact assessment on the outworking of welfare cuts announced last week and in the Spring Statement today.
The assessment shows an additional 250,000 people, including 50,000 children, are expected to be forced into poverty by the end of the decade.
Mr Eastwood said: “This is fundamentally wrong. The cuts to social security announced by the British Government today are deeper than they signalled last week and they will have a devastating impact on thousands of families.
“The government’s own impact assessment published today suggests that 50,000 children will be forced into poverty as a result of these cuts alongside hundreds of thousands of working age adults.
“Forcing tens of thousands of children into poverty to balance the government’s books is a price that no Labour government should ever be prepared to pay.
“Last week I set out the individual impact that this will have on families directly to Keir Starmer. People who need supervision to cut up food, to wash themselves and to go to the toilet will have their support totally removed. It is totally immoral and people are right to expect better from Labour.
“This week I have been meeting with people on the frontline of this crisis – those offering immediate support to people who will have their support cut. I honestly don’t believe that politicians fully appreciate the scale of what is about to happen and the devastation it will cause.
“I will oppose these cuts. I will work with people across Derry, across the North and across the House of Commons to resist this cruel attack on the most vulnerable.”
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