Poor ‘being sacrificed by Government’

Oldham MP Michael Meacher has accused the Government of sacrificing the poor and pushing on with its austerity programme — since it doesn’t affect Coalition MPs.

The Oldham West and Royton MP claimed: “No sane person would continue with such a policy at such expense in blood and treasure, yet here we have a Government determined to slog on with exactly the same policies, and - as with the generals in World War One - the cost is not to them, but to the poor squaddies sent over the top.”

The Labour MP said the Government’s economic policy had “not totally failed”, but added that creating more jobs would be a quicker way of getting the country back on track than continuing cuts.

Speaking in a Commons debate on the cost-of-living crisis, Mr Meacher said: “It is costing the country £19 billion a year to keep 2.5 million people unemployed. It would have been far better to get these people off benefit and into work through public investment, so they could earn and contribute.

“The last three years of unending misery and austerity have involved a momentous waste of resources in return for almost nothing.”