logo
Labour is already making a difference, writes Labour chair Ellie Reeves

Labour is already making a difference, writes Labour chair Ellie Reeves

Daily Mirror2 days ago
One year ago, the British people voted for change — and today, we mark the first anniversary of a Labour government committed to delivering just that.
Over the past 12 months, we have begun to turn the page on 14 years of Tory chaos and decline.
And while it hasn't been easy, and we know there is much more to do, our Plan for Change is already making a difference.
The first phase of this government was about taking immediate action to fix the foundations and stabilise our economy.
Because of this action, Britain had the highest growth of any G7 economy in the first quarter of this year.
Interest rates have been cut four times, lowering people's mortgages.
Wages are rising faster than prices.
NHS waiting lists are falling, with the delivery of four million extra NHS appointments.
And breakfast clubs are being rolled out across the country, to give kids a healthy start to the day and to put more money in parents' pockets.
Yes, we know the job is far from done and we won't sugarcoat the scale of the challenge.
But if the first phase of this government was about taking immediate action to fix the foundations and clean up the mess the Tories left behind, the second phase is now about making working people better off.
And as our focus shifts firmly to the future, we are going further and faster to deliver the change we promised.
While the Conservatives and Reform UK risk the economy by making unfunded promises they cannot keep, we are working tirelessly to improve living standards for people across the country.
Striving to build a renewed Britain, where your hard work is rewarded.
Where your NHS is there when you need it.
Where your community is safe, and your future is secure.
That is the country we're building together.
This is not about quick fixes. It's about rebuilding Britain — to make it fairer, stronger, and more secure.
To put money back in working people's pockets and build a better future together.
Follow our Mirror Politics account on Bluesky here. And follow our Mirror Politics team here - Lizzy Buchan, Mikey Smith, Kevin Maguire, Sophie Huskisson, Dave Burke and Ashley Cowburn.
Be first to get the biggest bombshells and breaking news by joining our Politics WhatsApp group here. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you want to leave our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
Or sign up here to the Mirror's Politics newsletter for all the best exclusives and opinions straight to your inbox.
And listen to our exciting new political podcast The Division Bell, hosted by the Mirror and the Express every Thursday.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

The best way to defeat Reform UK? Expose their gaping policy holes
The best way to defeat Reform UK? Expose their gaping policy holes

The National

timean hour ago

  • The National

The best way to defeat Reform UK? Expose their gaping policy holes

Starmer's humiliation last week over his bill to cut £5 billion from disability benefits represents a potent sign of Labour's stark decline since July 2024. The Government won the vote – after making substantial concessions to stave off a rebellion from its own MPs – yet lost the argument. There is undoubtedly more of the same on the way for Starmer. Then there is the NHS, enduring the worst crisis in its history. Labour's 3% funding increase compares poorly with the 3.6% real-terms average since 1948. And it is not enough to end the misery endured every day by the millions of people on waiting lists. READ MORE: Keir Starmer's Donald Trump pandering proves the UK's global influence is fading Starmer's solution to the crisis, announced last week, is to build 200 'neighbourhood health centres' in England staffed by thousands more GPs, district nurses, social care workers, pharmacists and mental health specialists, with each centre operating 12 hours a day, six days a week. His 10-year plan promises: 'The majority of outpatient appointments will eventually happen there, away from hospitals.' But as the Royal College of Nursing, the British Medical Association and a host of other professional organisations have pointed out, this is pie in the sky without the necessary funding. And 3% simply won't cut it. Starmer's emphasis on 'community care' rather than hospital interventions is all very well, but it cannot be delivered without resources. The plain fact is that Starmer is continuing with the chronic underfunding successive governments have presided over these past 30 years. The NHS capital budget, for example, was frozen in last month's spending review. As the Financial Times concluded: 'NHS finances are as precarious today as they were before the Covid-19 pandemic.' While the Westminster commentariat focused on the parliamentary rebellion, voters must remember only that Labour again attacked those it was supposed to represent. Their assault on the support given to disabled people was an affront to progressive values by the same leader who cut foreign aid in order to double expenditure on armaments. Those decisions reveal Starmer's core values. It is little wonder that he has plunged to levels of unpopularity pollsters have never seen before in a prime minister. There is now a fierce debate taking place within the Labour Party (and the SNP) over how best to counter the marked rise in support for Reform. Labour's chief strategist Morgan McSweeney favours attacking them from the right, arguing Britain is 'broken' and prefers pandering to Farage on issues such as immigration, defence and law and order. On the other hand, Labour MPs in places such as London, facing an electoral squeeze from the Greens and Liberal Democrats, argue that more socially progressive measures are necessary, including increased spending on public housing and social care. Speaking of the latter, in my column in the Scottish Socialist Voice this week, I insisted the SNP owe the people of Scotland an apology for their abject failure to address the social care crisis here. READ MORE: How small Scottish parties are reacting to news of a new Corbyn project In October 2021, then-first minister Nicola Sturgeon promised 'a national care service on a par with the NHS', and vowed it would be 'the greatest achievement of the devolution era'. In the end, the SNP government delivered no improvement whatsoever. Much has been written and said recently asking whether Nigel Farage will be the next prime minister. A Dispatches documentary on Channel 4 last week, hosted by the right-wing commentator Fraser Nelson, was the latest in the genre. Inevitably, Nelson rather ducks the question, although he did conclude that Farage's sums don't add up. THE point surely is that it is the miserable failure of those parties of the 'extreme centre' – in government for decades – that has provided Farage with the opportunity to claim Britain is broken and needs Reform. As things stand, Farage doesn't have to do anything except criticise Starmer. And given the dog's dinner the Prime Minister is making of things, Farage's task for the moment is a dawdle. The intrinsic instability of Reform, a party infiltrated by the extreme right and made up overwhelmingly of former Tory members, sees it rely most heavily on former Labour voters. Trying to straddle that divide forces Farage to call, at one and the same time, for tax cuts for the rich and public spending increases, nationalisation of Scunthorpe steelworks and opposition to disability benefit attacks. Reform's poll lead is likely to wither when those organic contradictions break out into the open. That may take a while and meanwhile Starmer remains their biggest recruiting sergeant. The best way to defeat Reform UK in my opinion is to expose the gaping holes in its politics and its claimed 'anti-establishment' credentials. The Scottish Socialist Party is active in countering Farage's views with our own slogan, 'Say yes to reforms, no to Reform UK'. We are convinced independence offers Scotland an 'escape hatch' both from 'broken Britain' and from Farage's malign influence ahead of next year's Holyrood elections. Colin Fox is Scottish Socialist Party national co-spokesperson. He sat on the YES Scotland Advisory Board 2012-14 and represented the Lothians as an MSP from 2003-07

Labour's plans on welfare show it to be the real nasty party
Labour's plans on welfare show it to be the real nasty party

The National

timean hour ago

  • The National

Labour's plans on welfare show it to be the real nasty party

I hope that's true of most across politics – even those who I might vehemently disagree with over how to go about tackling the issues. I really hope their motivations are in the right place, even if I think I might go about things differently. I've found it much harder to reach this conclusion for those in parties like the Conservatives, aka 'The Nasty Party', which have consistently taken steps to make life harder for society's most vulnerable. From the two-child benefit cap to their disdain for minorities, the Tories have never failed to make life worse at every opportunity for the people they're supposed to represent. READ MORE: Keir Starmer's Donald Trump pandering proves the UK's global influence is fading When Robert Jenrick was immigration minister and ordered that colourful murals at an asylum centre for unaccompanied child migrants be painted over, he represented the very worst of a party and a political class which goes out of its way to be outright cruel to incredibly vulnerable children at a time of extraordinary distress. It sickens me. I wonder intensely then, what the motivations were for the hundreds of Labour MPs across the country who were elected last year and have done nothing since but continue the Tory legacy of cruelty and authoritarianism. Did they get into politics just to vote to keep the two-child benefit cap – rape clause and all – within their first few weeks of power? Did they get into politics just to strip vulnerable pensioners of their Winter Fuel Payments? Did they get into politics to trample the rights of trans people? Maybe it was to make it even harder to exist day-to-day as a disabled person in this country? Or perhaps it was to proscribe non-violent activist groups that the government disagrees with as terrorist organisations? Did they get into politics to help enable the continued genocide of the Palestinian people? The cynic in me knows that, for some of the more than 400 Labour MPs elected last July, their motivation will have been little more than proximity to power and a cushty salary. To them, they'll just see it as any other job, and they won't care about the consequences of their actions on the people they are supposed to represent. For some, they were simply parachuted in to be yes men to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and presumably lack the capability for empathy to question if any of what they're doing might be wrong. But I simply refuse to believe that is the case for the majority of them. I know that for so many Labour MPs, they'll have sought election because they genuinely wanted to improve people's lives. They'll have seen the harm of 14 years of Tory cruelty and austerity, and they will have wanted to change that. So how on Earth can those MPs sleep at night now, a year on? When it came to a vote on the two-child benefit cap, only seven then-Labour MPs voted against. Just nine Labour MPs voted against proscribing Palestine Action, and not a single one voted against the cuts to Winter Fuel Payments last year. In each of these votes, a minority of Labour MPs took the coward's way out and abstained, but in each case several hundred Labour MPs voted in line with their right-wing government and voted for cruelty and authoritarianism. READ MORE: Lisa Nandy aide 'drafted note saying BBC is institutionally antisemitic' A number of these Labour MPs grew a spine more recently and took a stand against Starmer's brutal cuts to disability benefits – but clearly not used to the weight of having a backbone, the majority quickly bowed down and accepted measly concessions which do little more than kick the can down the road and create a two-tier system for disabled people who were approved for health-related benefits before versus after the changes will be implemented. Just 49 Labour MPs voted against the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill last week at its second reading, and all eyes will be on their colleagues tomorrow when MPs vote after its final reading, before it goes to the House of Lords. THE bill – even in its watered down state – would see Universal Credit payments slashed for disabled young people, blatantly discriminating on the basis of their age and disability. It has been described as 'catastrophic' by grassroots disabled-led campaign Crips Against Cuts, and threatens to plunge a huge number of disabled people and their carers into poverty. Some 126 Labour MPs signed a reasoned amendment essentially rebelling against the original version of the bill, including 12 Scottish Labour MPs, though notably they were not backed by Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar who enthusiastically offered his support to his London-based bosses. Although this was significant as the largest-scale rebellion since the General Election, and one that ultimately forced the Government into making concessions, this means nearly 300 Labour MPs – including a majority of Scottish Labour MPs – still backed the Government's appalling reforms all the way through. And a majority of the 126 rebels backed down after measly concessions which will still enact immense harm on an incredibly vulnerable community. These Labour MPs, who I'd really like to believe stood for election to improve the lives of their constituents, have consistently chosen to continue the unwaveringly cruel legacy of the Tories, which enacts abject harm on some of the most vulnerable people in this country. And even when they've managed to pluck up the courage to rebel, they still buckled at the very first hurdle. I don't know how they can look at themselves in the mirror. They talk of 'difficult choices' but it's always difficult choices for the working classes and never for the millionaires who continue to hoard immense wealth in this country. They have the full powers of a government with an overwhelming majority in an independent country, and this is how they choose to use them. Simply put, the 'nasty party' is no longer the domain solely of the Tories. It's not even just shared between them and Reform. A year into government, this right-wing Labour Party is nasty through and through.

Amazon shoppers say £6 buy is 'great cost-effective addition to any house'
Amazon shoppers say £6 buy is 'great cost-effective addition to any house'

Edinburgh Live

timean hour ago

  • Edinburgh Live

Amazon shoppers say £6 buy is 'great cost-effective addition to any house'

Amazon has slashed the price of an essential product that's a staple in every British home. Shoppers have been praising its ability to bring a touch of hotel-style luxury to their homes without breaking the bank. During the summer Amazon Prime Day event, running from July 8 to 11, the online retailer announced reductions on a wide range of goods, including top-tier electronic devices, stylish clothes, beauty products and children's toys. Amongst these bargains was the Amazon 2-Ply Embossed Toilet Roll. In an impressive pack of 18 rolls, the Amazon own brand batch packs in 200 sheets per roll. Available exclusively to Prime members, families can now bulk buy this bathroom necessity for the bargain price of £5.84. This means thrifty shoppers with enough storage can pick up rolls that work out at approximately 34p each, making bathroom visits a little less expensive over time. Competing bulk deals are also on offer at wholesalers like Costco with their Kirkland Signature Triple Satin 3-Ply Toilet Tissue (40 rolls, £22.99), and at B&Q with the Nicky Soft Touch White Toilet Roll (32 rolls, £10). But, many Amazon users have been persuaded to abandon the convenience of high-street stores in favour of the digital deal, reports the Mirror. A satisfied customer said: "I didn't realise what I was missing until I tried the Amazon Toilet Roll, 2-Ply Embossed, Soft. It's soft, strong, and makes me feel like I'm living in a five-star hotel bathroom. Seriously, it's like they took the concept of comfort and turned it into paper." (Image: Amazon) One more shared: "I have used many different types of toilet paper in my life, from that scratchy stuff we had as kids in the 80s to a posh hotel where they gave you a live white dove to wipe your bottom with. But this Amazon stuff is the best: soft but strong, and it doesn't try to fly off when you use it." A third added: "I usually buy toilet paper from the supermarket, when I do my weekly shopping, but I ran out, so I thought I'd look an Amazon for a quick option. They are soft, thick enough and clean well. Plus, they're budget-friendly!" However, not all reviews were glowing, with one user claiming: "It's ok but very thin and fragments and leaves bits where you don't want bits - if you know what I mean." Another cautioned: "Probably the most fragile toilet paper I've ever experienced outside of a public loo; you have to use at least three sheets for any sort of integrity!" (Image: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images) Despite these criticisms, the product has gained thousands of positive reviews online. One such review read: "I've been using the Amazon toilet rolls for quite some time now, and I can confidently say they are a fantastic addition to any bathroom. This pack is an absolute lifesaver, especially for busy households like mine. With 200 sheets per roll, you get great value, and they last ages, so you won't find yourself running out unexpectedly." A fifth customer praised the product in their review saying: "Fantastic quality, I now use these on a rolling delivery instead of a previous brand. The paper is very soft and has a very neutral scent. The rolls are large and last really long." Shoppers can benefit from never having to think about buying toilet roll again with Amazon's Subscribe and Save model. This offers a small discount for committing to buy the same products again and again after a certain period of time.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store