Responding to the Labour Spring Statement today (March 26), Communist Party general secretary Robert Griffiths commented:

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has put on her tin-foil hat to announce the government’s intention to make Britain a “defence-industrial superpower”.

  This Spring Statement confirms Labour’s aim to be the war-mongering party of the military-industrial complex.

  Spending plans to assist the unemployed, poor and disabled are being chopped by almost £5bn, while military spending next year will rise by an extra £2.2bn. Overseas aid to the world’s most vulnerable people is being slashed while subsidies for British arms exports to overseas buyers are to be increased.

  Relying on the inefficient, greedy and corrupt arms industry to boost the economy is as barmy as relying on inefficient, greedy and corrupt property developers to meet people’s dire housing needs.

  Nor will taking an Elon Musk-style chainsaw to thousands of civil service jobs end economic stagnation and the threat of increased unemployment. 

  All the Chancellor’s bluster about “fiscal rules” and higher growth (in four years’ time!) is really a diversion from the policies needed to boost investment, modernisation, employment and working class living standards.

  The government’s surpluses, deficits and so-called “headroom” of around £10bn are chicken-feed compared with the extra £50bn a year to be gained from a wealth tax on assets of more than £10m, a financial transactions tax, and the equal application of income tax rates to capital gains and investment income.