The wannabe Prime Minister has backed welfare cuts, tax breaks for the rich and a trade union crackdown
As Stephen Crabb enters the Tory leadership contest, his colleague Maria Caulfield sums up his pitch as the ‘blue collar’ candidate in a piece for the Telegraph:
‘Stephen Crabb has a proven track record of being a One Nation Conservative who can cut across communities with his message of social justice for all.
Not just because he grew up on a council estate and was raised by his single mum or because he funded his way through university by working as a builder, but also because during his six years in government he has helped support some of the most disadvantaged communities in Britain.’
But as author James Bloodworth (late of this parish) has noted, Stephen Crabb is, despite his roots, no friend of the working class.
The dry language of the online register of votes says it well. On welfare and benefits, Crabb has:
- Consistently voted for reducing housing benefit for social tenants deemed to have excess bedrooms, (which Labour describe as the ‘bedroom tax’)
- Consistently voted against raising welfare benefits at least in line with prices
- Consistently voted against paying higher benefits over longer periods for those unable to work due to illness or disability
- Consistently voted for making local councils responsible for helping those in financial need afford their council tax and reducing the amount spent on such support
- Consistently voted for a reduction in spending on welfare benefits
- Almost always voted against spending public money to create guaranteed jobs for young people who have spent a long time unemployed
And that’s just for starters.
Crabb has voted for tax cuts for the richest, (specifically, those earning over £150,000), and voted against raising taxes for this income bracket.
He voted against a bankers’ bonus tax, though he has voted for higher taxes on banks.
Oh, and he’s voted consistently for a crackdown on trade unions, backing every restriction on union activities proposed by the government.
It’s bad enough having Stephen Crabb as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
Could this phoney champion of ‘social justice’ be the next Prime Minister?
Adam Barnett is staff writer for Left Foot Forward. Follow him on Twitter @AdamBarnett13
See: Nigel Farage is no enemy of ‘the elites’ – as his record shows
To reach hundreds of thousands of new readers and to make the biggest impact we can in the next general election, we need to grow our donor base substantially.
That's why in 2024, we are seeking to generate 150 additional regular donors to support Left Foot Forward's work.
We still need another 124 people to donate to hit the target. You can help. Donate today.
10 Responses to “Stephen Crabb is no working class hero – look at his voting record”
Ian
This from LFF? Oh, LOL. Too funny. Left Foot Forward. founded and published by one of the turds behind the attempt to ditch Corbyn, a man overwhelmingly elected by Labour’s working class members. Real Labour members rather than the shabby, entitled Blairites who are now knowingly doing their very best to ruin the party.
Labour became ultra middle class under Blair, there was barely a genuine working class voice to be heard. Labour policies made sure the national minimum wage became the national maximum for many. They took away free education, privatised chunks of the NHS and started off the process of killing off sick and disabled people.
So don’t you set foot on my internet and start chatting shit about who’se working class, you wouldn’t know if it bit you on the arse. More to the point, neither you nor the Blairites want to know it.
ted francis
Ian, it seems to me you are frightfully overheated about the wrong things. I was born into a genuinely piss-pot poor working class family and can just remember visiting a doctor and having to pay half-a-crown for the consultation. I still have a vision of my mum making the Sunday joint last four days for our family of seven. I have a whole memoir of being bitten in my ragged-arse by an early life that makes “Hard Times” read like a bed-time story. I voted for Jeremy because, like tens of thousands of others I thought he’d be the firebrand leader that would take the party to a new and defiant level. But there has been no sign that is going to happen. Where is the fire in his belly to thrill us when he tears the Tories to shreds? Why did he languish in the shadows during the Referendum campaign? Where is the fury to make his detractors shut up? In all sincerity, I have to doubt our ability to win an election with the PLP in its present state. So Ian…….think on.
David Davies
Neither are the majority of the PLP, as they have just demonstrated – again.
Mick Hills
Think actually if you squint your eyes he looks more like David Brent
George sansome
Crabb was for a short time the minister in charge of DWP …a department I was a member of for many years…..he voted to cap the civil service pay to 1% whilst he received a 12% pay rise…..his attitude was ” I didn’t have a say in this matter. It was an outside body who decided to offer us this increase” the man is a hypocrite and a sextet pest into the bargain…why did he suddenly RESIGN from his post as Minister for DWP