New Labour spent less than Tories

New Labour spent less than Tories

No wonder things have not got better

“DON’T GO back” to the terrible Tory years will be the theme of New Labour’s election campaign. Those years were certainly terrible-schools and hospitals were starved of cash, pensioners died from the cold, public services were privatised and the rich got richer. And after four years of New Labour?

Shaming figures just released by the Treasury and the Office for National Statistics show New Labour has spent less on improving vital services in every year Tony Blair has been in 10 Downing Street than the Tories did in their last 12 months in office.

Public investment, mostly in schools and hospitals, was 4.7 billion in the Tories’ last year. Last financial year Labour spent 3.5 billion, and this year it is set to spend even less. The figures expose a wider trend.

• Total spending on health was 5.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the Tories’ last year. Under New Labour it is LESS-5.4 percent.

• The Tories spent 5 percent of GDP on education. New Labour’s 1997 manifesto promised to spend more, but this government has spent LESS-4.6 percent.

We don’t want to go back to the Tory years. But neither do we want New Labour’s cuts, privatisations and tax breaks for the rich. That is why we say support, campaign and vote for the Socialist Alliance and the Scottish Socialist Party.

CATHERINE RICHARDS, a resident of William Rathbone elderly persons’ home in Birmingham, was part of a protest on Tuesday against the closure of homes pushed through by the Labour council