Starmer Attacks Disabled People to Fund Arms Spending

In 2010, George Osborne, then Tory Chancellor, used disabled people as a scapegoat for his plans of austerity, calling people who were unable to work as “welfare cheats” who were “no different to a mugger who robs you in the street.” The Tories then proceeded with £4bn of cuts to the welfare system. Fast forward 15 years, and the same tropes are being used again, and to justify the same fundamental policy — this time by Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.

Labour plans, in its upcoming spring statement, to announce £5bn of cuts to the already inadequate welfare system. This is framed under the guise of ‘getting people back into work’, when in fact, the main target of their cuts are PIP claimants. To be clear, PIP is not a work-related benefit — it is in fact an allowance for disabled people, who have a higher cost of living due to the increased costs of being disabled. Many PIP claimants are in work, and any attacks on this benefit could result in them not actually being able to work, if they rely on vehicles for mobility, for example.

This is a cruel rehashing of Tory austerity, and is an attack on the working poor. Recent analysis from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has found that “50% of people receiving the health-related element of Universal Credit (LCWRA) are either unable to heat their home, behind on bills, or have low or very low food security, compared to 11% in households not receiving any UC or Personal Independence Payments (PIP)”. Further to that, some 900,000 children live in homes which receive the main health-related benefit for those receiving UC. Not satisfied with keeping children in poverty through failing to scrap the two child benefit cap, Starmer is now looking to push even more children into poverty.

This comes mere days after Labour announced £12.8 billion for the war in Ukraine, as well as a massive increase to ‘defence’ spending. What we are seeing, not just in Britain but in many countries around the world, is an increase in militarisation, and working class and oppressed people are once again being made to pick up the bill. This will also be used against non-disabled people as a form of attack to drive down wages and conditions, as people will be forced into low-paid work, creating a race to the bottom for the whole working class. Friedrich Engels wrote about the same phenomenon in his 1845 book The Condition of the Working Class in England, which Karl Marx later developed in more detail, explaining that capitalism needs this ‘reserve army’ to make it easier for capitalists to make more profits by keeping wages down.

These attacks also make it clear that capitalism sees disabled people as ‘unproductive’ — essentially unprofitable for their profit-driven system. We must oppose these attacks. Trade unions should be at the forefront of this struggle alongside disability groups such as DPAC (Disabled People Against the Cuts), to drive back these cuts. A national demonstration should be called urgently to show the inevitable mass opposition to Starmer’s return to austerity policies, as a step towards further working class action.

Disabled and oppressed people will always be in the scope of attacks under capitalism. This is why we must fight for a society free from oppression and war. A world that is run by and for the working class, rather than a society run for profit for the capitalists — a socialist world.