Member's statement: Labour Government

Member's statement by Mr Jonathan Buckley on 13 January 2025.

MLA

Mr Jonathan Buckley

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

13 January 2025

Type

Member's statement

Business

Members' Statements

Heading

Labour Government

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4737847

Read the official Assembly record

Text

People say that you can judge an individual or organisation not on their words but by their actions. In six months of the Labour Government, their actions have amounted to no more than betrayal, deceit and destruction. In Opposition, the Labour Party said that it supported a public inquiry into grooming gangs — gangs that gang-raped young white women right across England — yet, in Government, it has voted against a public inquiry. In Opposition, Labour said that it supported pensioners and their right to retain the winter fuel payment. In Government, it has cut some pensioners' eligibility for the winter fuel payment. As we have seen in Northern Ireland, many pensioners are now in hospital, where there are backlogs because there are no care packages for those pensioners who would be best placed at home. Labour promised the farming community that it supported farmers, but introduced a change to the farm inheritance tax that is the most destructive measure that has been introduced to farming in the past 100 years. As a point of conversation today, although the Labour Government promised the growth of the UK economy, they have tanked the UK economy. Let us look at the facts of Rachel Reeves's blunder Budget, because they speak clearly. As of last week, the cost of Government borrowing has exceeded a nearly 30-year high. The pound has taken a further hit against the dollar and is now at a 14-month low. The UK is seeing the worst inflation in the G7. Growth rates are around zero. Does anybody remember the public outcry from the media and Labour when Liz Truss's mini-Budget had apparently destroyed the UK economy? What was it over? It was over bond rates. Today, bond rates exceed those that Liz Truss's mini-Budget delivered. The cost of Government borrowing is increasing to staggering levels. It is we, the people of the United Kingdom, who face the consequences. We were told that "Growth, growth, growth" would be the priority. However, what have the Labour Government delivered since that blunder Budget? It has been a policy of tax and burn. They have set the economy ablaze and left farmers, businesses and pensioners smouldering in the ashes under the weight of new taxes. Confidence in the business community is at an all-time low. It is high time that the Labour Government woke up from the la-la land in which they operate and got into the real world, because the prosperity —

— of our nation and our people depend on them.

420 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:42 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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