governing without a mandate

8/7/2019 Governing Without a Mandate

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Governing

without amandateHow David Cameron is

pressing ahead with divisivepolicies which the public didnot vote for


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Introduction

Labour lost last year's General Election but the Tories did not win it. They fell short of a

majority, unable to command the support of the British people for their right-wing agenda .

Since then, David Cameron has failed to heed the message sent by the British public.Rather than proposing reform that commands consensus, his Tory-led Government has

attempted to force through right-wing policies for which they have no mandate.

This document reveals the gap between the pre-election promises and the post-election

reality. It shows how this Tory-led Government is attempting to force through high profileright-wing policies, from the top-down reorganisation of the NHS, to front-line cuts to vitalpublic services like the Police, without a mandate.

Thursday will be the first opportunity for the British people to pass judgment onthe policies of this Tory-led Government which has no mandate.


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reduction will take the best part of a decade,11 and that Our working assumption is

that the conditions will be right for cuts from 2011-12, but not before.12

But they did another after the election:

Just two weeks after the election, Liberal Democrat members of the Tory-ledGovernment ignored the mandate their voters had given them by supporting over 6

billion of immediate cuts which they had promised not to implement. 13 They signed upto George Osbornes attempt to eliminate the deficit by 2015-16, going further andfaster than they had told their voters they would go.14

David Cameron should listen and change course:

Labour is now calling on the Tory-led Government to rethink its reckless economicpolicy, which has delivered flat growth across the last two quarters after growth of 1.8per cent over the previous two quarters, and return to the balanced plan, advocated

before the election by Labour, to halve the deficit in four years. The Tories should heedLabours call to rethink their reckless plans to cut too deep and too fast. They need to

listen to Labour and produce a Plan B that puts growth and jobs first. This Thursdayselection is the first opportunity for voters to deliver a verdict on the Tory-led

Governments deficit reduction policy for which is has no mandate, which goes too farand too fast, and which many of those who supported Coalition parties in 2010explicitly voted against.

3) No mandate for their attack on family budgets

On VAT

They said one thing before the election:

The Conservatives said they had no plans to increase VAT. 15 Liberal Democratpoliticians said that their plans did not require a VAT rise and released a poster warning

against what they called a "TORY VAT BOMBSHELL".16


Since the election, the Tory-led Government has betrayed the electorate by raising VATfrom 17.5 per cent to 20 per cent. The rise will, on average, cost a family with children450 per year and a pensioner couple 275 per year.17

On tax credits


Before the election the Conservatives promised that no family with an income below40,000 would lose out from their plans to cut tax credits.18 Labour warned thatfamilies with an income of 31,000 or more would lose out, but the Conservatives

reassured their potential voters by saying, That is a lie, and it is irresponsible forLabour to be scaremongering in this way and worrying families needlessly.19


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Since the election, the Tory-led Government has betrayed its voters by doing exactlywhat they promised they would not do. George Osbornes June Budget included changes

to tax credits which mean that from 2012, families with a joint income of just 30,000will get no tax credits at all, and families earning 25,000 will see their tax credits

cut.20 And in the October Spending Review, George Osborne announced more changesto the rules around eligibility for working tax credits which mean married couples onlow incomes with children will only get the working tax credit if they work 24 hours a

week between them rather than the current 16 hours a week.21

On child benefit:


David Cameron went into the General Election saying he wouldnt change child benefitand wouldnt means test it, as he didnt think that would be a good idea. 22 Nick Clegg

said during the General Election campaign that child benefit was something where itsquite important that everybody, rich or poor, wherever they live, feels they have got astake in it23 and promised that his party was not putting child benefit into question. 24


Since the General Election the Tory-led Government has announced that from 2013households with a higher rate taxpayer will no longer receive child benefit.25 That

means that a family on 45,000 where one parent stays at home will lose all of theirchild benefit, while a family on 80,000 where each partner is earning 40,000 will

keep theirs.


Labour is now calling on the Tory-led Government to recognise that its decisions on tax,tax credits and benefits are putting a real strain on family budgets, and will put families

under even more pressure in the years to come. This Thursdays election is an

opportunity to deliver a verdict on the Tory-led Governments decision to introduce taxrises and family benefit cuts which it explicitly said before the 2010 election that it

would not impose.

4) No mandate for their Police cuts


The Conservatives promised to get More police on the streets.26 David Cameron saidless than a week before the election that "any Cabinet minister, if I win the election,who comes to me and says: Here are my plans and they involve frontline reductions,theyll be sent straight back to their department to go away and think again.27 LiberalDemocrat voters opted for a party which said they would put 3,000 more police on the

beat.28


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Since the election the Tory-led Government has imposed 20 per cent cuts to policefunding29 forcing Chief Constables to cut over 30,000 police jobs; including over 12,500

police officers and thousands more police staff30. Her Majesty's Inspectorate ofConstabulary said that a re-design of the police system could at best save 12 per

cent of central government funding but cuts beyond that would almost certainlyreduce police availability.31

At the same time as cutting police numbers, the Tory-led Government is subjecting thepolice to an unnecessary and unwanted reorganisation, wasting 100 million on

creating another tier of politicians through directly elected police commissioners. This

spending is the equivalent of employing 600 full time police officers. 32


Labour is calling on the Tory-led Government to rethink its 20 per cent cut to policefunding, and to put a permanent stop to their plans to spend 100 million onintroducing unwanted police and crime commissioners. This Thursdays election is anopportunity to deliver a verdict on the Tory-led Governments frontline police cutswhich they promised would not happen.

5) No mandate for pulling away the ladders of opportunity from young people

On EMA:


The Conservative Party promised to keep the Educational Maintenance Allowance, andmade it clear that they had no intention of scrapping it.33


Since the election, the Tory-led Government has scrapped the EMA and cut the budgetfor supporting young people to stay on in education by two thirds34 so thousands of

young people will lose out as a result.35 Already, colleges are concerned that feweryoung people will apply for college places as a result of this decision.36

On the Future Jobs Fund:


David Cameron praised the Future Jobs Fund a successful scheme to get young peopleinto work before the election,37 and the Conservatives said they had no plans to

change existing Future Jobs Fund commitments.38 The Liberal Democrats said that theyhad no plans to change or reduce existing commitments to the Future Jobs Fund.39


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Since the election, the Tory-led Government has scrapped the Future Jobs Fund40 andhas offered no credible alternative, even though youth unemployment is at an all-timehigh.41

On tuition fees:


Before the election, all 57 Liberal Democrat MPs signed the National Union of Studentspledge to vote against any rise in tuition fees.42 Nick Clegg told students that they

could make a difference in countless seats in this election and called for studentvoters to Use your vote to block unfair tuition fees and get them scrapped once and

for all.43


Since the election, the Tory-led Government has increased the maximum tuition fee to9,000, with the support of Liberal Democrat ministers.44 With most universities opting

to charge the maximum fee, Vince Cable has admitted that the Government has twoways of dealing financially with collective over-pricing: either cutting the teachinggrant or student numbers.45 The Government has already cut student numbers by

10,000 in 2012/13.46


Labour is calling on the Tory-led Government to rethink its unfair cuts in support foryoung people, which are kicking away the ladders of the next generation. This

Thursdays election is an opportunity to deliver a verdict on the Tory-led Governmentscuts which hit the chances of young people, which they have introduced despiteexplicitly seeking votes before the election by promising that they would keep in placemeasures to support the next generation.


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Notes

1 "There will be no more of those pointless re-organisations that aim for change but instead bring chaos."David Cameron, speech to Royal College of Nursing, 11 May 2009

2 "We will stop the top-down reorganisations of the NHS that have got in the way of patient care."The Coalition: our programme for government, 20 May 2010, p. 24

3"We are not suggesting tearing up the structure of PCTs or SHAs, so you have still got those parts of the healtheconomy there."

David Cameron, Health Service Journal, 28 June 2007

4 Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat health spokesman, attacked the idea of an independent board as a nonsenseduring the election campaign, declaring that to have an independent, non-elected quango responsible for 100bn of

public money is simply incredible.

Financial Times, 14 May 2010

5 In December 2010 he adopted the same approach when he told NHS finance officers that he had consulted change

management experts from around the world: and no one could come up with a scale of change like the one we are

embarking on at the moment. Someone said to me it is the only change management system you can actually seefrom space it is that large

House of Commons Health Committee, Commissioning, Third Report of Session 201011Volume I, Volume I: Report,17

6There was a significant policy shift between the Coalition Programme, published on 20 May 2010, and the WhitePaper, published on 12 July 2010. The Coalition Programme anticipated an evolution of existing institutions; the

White Paper announced significant institutional upheaval. The Committee does not believe that this change of policy

has yet been sufficiently explained given the costs and uncertainties generated by the process. The Committeebroadly shares the Governments policy objectives so it therefore welcomes the fact that these are substantially

unchanged. It does not believe however that the approach adopted by the Government represents the most efficient

way of delivering those objectives. The failure to plan for the transition is a particular concern in the current financialcontext. The Nicholson Challenge was already a high-risk strategy and the White Paper increased the level of risk

considerably without setting out a credible plan for mitigating that risk.House of Commons Health Committee, Commissioning, Third Report of Session 201011 Volume I, Volume I: Report,p. 3

7Sir,Radical reform of the NHS in England is expected to come a major step closer this week, with publication of the

Health and Social Care Bill. As unions and professional organisations representing the 1.3 million staff who make upthe NHS, we are extremely concerned that the Government is not heeding the warnings about key elements of the

proposals. We recognise the need to provide NHS services more cost-effectively, but we believe this can and must be

achieved without taking unnecessary risks and damaging care.One of the major concerns is the role that the NHSs economic regulator, Monitor, will be given to ensure that any

willing providers, including NHS and voluntary organisations, and commercial companies, are able to compete to

provide all NHS services. In addition, the 2011-12 operating framework for the NHS, published last month, revealedthat providers will be able to offer services to commissioners at less than the published mandatory tariff price.

There is clear evidence that price competition in healthcare is damaging. Research by economists at Imperial College

shows that, following the introduction of competition in the NHS in the 1990s, under a system that allowed hospitals

to negotiate prices, there was a fall in clinical quality. With scarce resources there is a serious danger that the focuswill be on cost, not quality.

Enforced competition will also make it harder for NHS staff to work collaboratively in multidisciplinary teams, across

organisational boundaries, to create the integrated care pathways that patients want and need, and that will help to

make services more efficient.

Furthermore the sheer scale of the ambitious and costly reform programme, and the pace of change, while at thesame time being expected to make 20 billion of savings, is extremely risky and potentially disastrous.

Dr Peter Carter, Royal College of Nursing

Dr Hamish Meldrum, British Medical AssociationKaren Jennings, Unison

Karen Reay, Unite

Professor Cathy Warwick, Royal College of Midwives


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Phil Gray, Chartered Society of Physiotherapy

Letter to the Times, 17 January 2011,http://www.rcn.org.uk/newsevents/news/article/uk/rcn_and_other_unions_express_concern_about_nhs_reform

8"The publication of the Health and Social Care Bill signals the biggest shake-up of the NHS since its inception."The last decade has seen significant progress in the performance of the NHS. While ministers are right to stress the

need for reform to make it truly world class, these gains are at risk from the combination of the funding squeeze and

the speed and scale of the reforms as currently planned."Chris Ham, Chief Executive, Kings Fund, Press Release, 19 January 2011,http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/press/press_releases/the_kings_fund_32.html

9 "Royal College of Nursing members have overwelmingly passed a vote of no confidence in health secretary Andrew

Lansleys management of the NHS reforms."The emergency motion, debated this morning at the RCNs annual Congress in Liverpool, was passed with a 98.76%

majority, and puts renewed pressure on Mr Lansley ahead of his visit to the conference this afternoon."Nursing Times, 13 April 2011, http://www.nursingtimes.net/nursing-practice/clinical-specialisms/management/rcn-passes-vote-of-no-confidence-in-lansley-and-reforms/5028616.article

10Throughout the summer and early autumn a Comprehensive Spending Review of all departments would beconducted with the objective of identifying the remaining cuts needed to, at a minimum, halve the deficit by 2013-

14.Liberal Democrat manifesto 2010, p. 98

11"Deficit reduction will take the best part of a decade."Nick Clegg, speech on deficit reduction to IPPR, 16 March 2010

12Our working assumption is that the conditions will be right for cuts from 2011-12, but not before.Nick Clegg, speech on deficit reduction to IPPR, 16 March 2010

13"It is less than two weeks since the Coalition was formed, and it is testament to our determination to tackle thedeficit that we are today able to announce that we are taking the first step to deliver over 6bn of savings acrossGovernment this financial year."David Laws, then Chief Secretary to the Treasury, speech announcing 6.2 billion spending reductions, 24 May 2010

14"The formal mandate we set is that the structural current deficit should be in balance in the final year of the five-year forecast period, which is 2015-16 in this Budget."George Osborne, Budget Speech, 22 June 2010

15We have no plans to increase VAT.George Osborne, The Times, 10 April 2010

16"We will not have to raise VAT to deliver our promises. The Conservatives will. Let me repeat that: Our plans do notrequire a rise in VAT. The Tory plans do."Nick Clegg, speech at launch of Liberal Democrat Tory VAT Bombshell poster, Glasgow, 8 April 2010

17 Hansard, 5 July 2010, Column 99W

18"Our policy is to stop families with incomes over 50,000 from getting the family element of the Child Tax Credit.No family with an income below 40,000 will lose out."Conservative Party spokesman, Guardian, 3 May 2010

19In the last couple of days the Labour Party briefly paid for a misleading advert on the popular MumsNet site aboutour plans for tax credits. I think its important that people know the truth.

They say our policy will take away tax credits from families with incomes of 31,000 or more. That is a lie, and it isirresponsible for Labour to be scaremongering in this way and worrying families needlessly.

So I want to be very clear. We think that tax credits provide a vital boost for families across the country. We support

tax credits and we will keep them.


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Theresa May, The Blue Blog, 11 February 2010

20 June Budget 2010, Table A2, p. 64

21changing the eligibility rules so that couples with children must work 24 hours a week between them, with onepartner working at least 16 hours a week in order to qualify for the WTC, saving 390 million a year by 2014-15.Spending Review 2010, Box 2.6, p. 68

22First of all, I think child benefit is a really successful benefit. Youre shaking your head Im afraid I dont agree withyou. Thats why these sessions are important, Im not going to flannel you Im going to give it to you straight. I likechild benefit do you know why? It goes straight to the mother. Its a benefit we all understand. Its a benefit that

definitely helps families to bring up children. I think the fact that the child benefit for the first child is more is

important because thats when families have a lot of extra spending to do so I wouldnt change child benefit, Iwouldnt means test it, I dont think that is a good idea.

David Cameron, Cameron Direct in Bolton, 5 March 2010

23there are some benefits and I think child benefit is one of them, where actually I think its quite important thateverybody, rich or poor, wherever they live, feels they have got a stake in it. Because I think it is quite important that

some benefits, not all, should have that kind of, should act as that glue if you like that binds people together.

Nick Clegg, The Politics Show, 7 March 2010

24 Jeremy Paxman: On Child Benefit, in September last year you said you wanted to get rid of child benefit forhigh earners.

Nick Clegg: No I didnt say get rid of it, I didnt say, Ive never said that.Jeremy Paxman: Youve never wanted to get rid of it for high earners?

Nick Clegg: No Ive never said that.

Jeremy Paxman: But Vince Cable said in the Chancellors debate, only a matter of two or three weeks ago, that he did

want to get rid of it for high earners?

Nick Clegg: No he made quite clear within minutes I think of the debate that he misspoke, that what he meant

was the child component of the tax credit system. We are not putting Child Benefit into question, Inever have and he hasnt either.

Nick Clegg interview with Jeremy Paxman, BBC, 13 April 2010

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To ensure the welfare system is sustainable, the Spending Review announces further welfare savings, includingreforms to save 2.5 billion a year by 2014-15 by withdrawing Child Benefit from families with a higher rate taxpayerso that people on lower incomes are not subsiding those who are better off.Spending Review, 20 October 2010, 1.61, p. 28

26 The fourth change we desperately need is that oldest political of political chestnuts. More police on the streets.More bobbies on the beat. Always promised. Never delivered. Why? Because we give the police too many reasons not

to do it. Too many things that keep them in the police station. Too many reasons to stay away from the front line.

Police spend their lives filling in forms instead of out on the beat another clear example of Labour being soft oncrime.

Chris Grayling, speech, 23 February 2009

27 "What I can tell you is any cabinet minister, if I win the election, who comes to me and says: Here are my plans andthey involve frontline reductions, theyll be sent straight back to their department to go away and think again."

David Cameron, The Andrew Marr Show, 2 May 2010

28Liberal Democrats will:Pay for 3,000 more police on the beat, affordable because we are cutting other spending, such as scrapping pointless

ID cards.Liberal Democrat Manifesto 2010, p. 72

29"Central government police funding will reduce by 20 per cent in real terms by 2014-15."Spending Review 2010, p. 54

30 Based on Labour Party research http://www.campaignengineroom.org.uk/police-map


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31 A re-design of the system has the potential, at best, to save 12% of central government funding, while

maintaining police availability. A cut beyond 12% would almost certainly reduce police availability unless it were

prioritised over and above everything else the police did. Over time, savings of around 1.15 billion (equating to 12%

of central government funding) may be achievable by improving productivity and cuttings costs.Valuing the Police: policing in an age of austerity, HMIC report, July 2010, p.4

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On the issue of the costs of reforming police governance, the proposals do not recognise the substantial costs oftransition and PCC elections. We believe that the minimum cost of direct elections in 2012 would be 64m, more than

the entire cost of running police authorities for a year. Our independent research shows that the cost of the proposednew governance model over the five years from 2011/12 to 2015/16 will be a minimum of 453m. That is 101m

more than the cost of running police authorities during that period. This is equivalent to the removal of over 600

police officers from the front line. In the context of the current dire financial climate and the impending cuts to

policing we do not believe that additional expenditure on a directly elected PCC model is justified.Response to Policing in the 21st Century, APA, 20 September 2010, p4

33Ed Balls keeps saying that we are committed to scrapping the EMA. I have never said this. We won't."Michael Gove, Q&A The Guardian, 2 March 2010

We are entirely in favour not only of the existence of the EMA but of the provisions in the Bill to secure an extension

to it.Michael Gove, Hansard, 14 January 2008

Weve looked at Educational Maintenance Allowances... no we dont have any plans to get rid of them.David Cameron, Cameron Direct, 6 January 2010

34One hundred and eighty million pounds will be available for that bursary fund, which is enough to ensure thatevery child eligible for free school meals who chooses to stay on could be paid 800 per yearmore than manyreceive under the current EMA arrangements.

Michael Gove, WMS, 28 March 2011,http://services.parliament.uk/hansard/Commons/bydate/20110328/mainchamberdebates/part004.html

35Under the current arrangements, children with household incomes less than 20,817 are entitled to a full EMApayment of 30 per week (or 1,170 per year). By comparison, to be eligible for free school meals, their household

income cannot total more than 16,190. In other words, any children on free school meals are currently entitled to

the full 1,170 for EMA, if their circumstances do not change. It must be the case that most such students would beworse off under the bursary scheme that they would have been under the EMA - on average, to the tune of 370 a

year.Haroon Chowdry and Luke Sibieta, IFS, 29 March 2011, Many unanswered questions over EMA successor,

http://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/5529

36 Colleges are braced for a fall in enrolments as students face months of uncertainty over whether they will beeligible for the Governments new bursaries.

Julian Gravatt, assistant chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said members were trying to attract students

without knowing how much support would be available until June at the earliest.

He said: Colleges have been running open days and having prospectuses printed since last autumn. I think it will

undoubtedly have an effect on enrolment for September.

FE Focus, 1 April 2011, http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6075484

37Conservative leader David Cameron visited Liverpool and pledged Tory support for continuing job creation schemesaimed at helping young people who have slipped through the cracks get back into work.

Mr Cameron and his entourage descended on Merseystride, a social enterprise helping the long-term unemployed inEverton.

And, after meeting young people who had secured work at the Great Homer Street site assembling and selling

furniture, Mr Cameron said he had been inspired by what he had seen.He said the Governments Future Jobs Fund programme aimed at 16 to 24-year-olds struggling to find work was a

good scheme.

Liverpool Daily Post, 31 March 2010


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38"I welcome this opportunity to clarify the Conservative position on the Future Jobs Fund, which I feel has beenmisrepresented by certain groups in the media. We have no plans to change existing Future Jobs Fund commitments.

"However, as you point out in your letter, it is essential that this support delivers long-term sustainable work for

those who take up Future Jobs Fund opportunities. If elected we will review the operation of the Fund to ensure thatthis is the case."Theresa May, then Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, letter to Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary

Organisations, 28 April 2010

39We have no plans to change or reduce existing commitments to the Future Jobs Fund. We believe that more helpis needed for young people, not less.Letter from Steve Webb (then Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary for Work and Pensions) to ACEVO, 21 April 2010,http://www.acevo.org.uk/Document.Doc?id=604

40320m from ending ineffective elements of employment programmes, including ending further rollout oftemporary jobs through the Young Persons Guarantee (the Future Jobs Fund) and removing recruitment subsidiesfrom the Six-Month Offer.HM Treasury press release, 24 May 2010

41 The government is facing more calls for tougher action to tackle youth unemployment after the number of 16 to

24-year-olds out of work rose to a record of almost 1m.Financial Times, 16 February 2011, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4bf40396-39b5-11e0-8dba-00144feabdc0.html

42Vote against any increase in fees in the next Parliament and to pressure the Government to introduce a faireralternativeNUS Funding the Future pledge, 2010

43Students can make the difference in countless seats in this election. Use your vote to block unfair tuition fees andget them scrapped once and for all.

Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrat press release, 28 April 2010

44There will be a graduate contribution threshold of 6,000 a year. In exceptional cases, universities will be able tocharge higher contributions, up to a limit of 9,000, subject to meeting much tougher conditions on widening

participation and fair access. It will be up to the university or college to decide what it charges, including whether itcharges at different levels for different courses.Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, press release, 3 November 2010

45"My main point here is that Government essentially has two ways of dealing financially with collective over-pricing:either cutting the teaching grant or student numbers. We are very reluctant to go down either route, and do notbelieve we need to. On the contrary, I want Government to step back at the earliest opportunity, so that university

independence is enhanced and competition operates."

Vince Cable, speech to HEFCE annual conference, 6 April 2011,http://nds.coi.gov.uk/content/Detail.aspx?ReleaseID=419032&NewsAreaID=2

46 As a provisional planning assumption, universities and colleges should work on the basis that this pulse ofadditional entrant places will not not be repeated in 2012/3 and so the extra 10,000 places will not be repeated.

Vince Cable, letter to Higher Education Funding Council for England, in The Independent, 20 December 2010,

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/university-cuts-a-kick-in-the-teeth-2165302.html

governing without a mandate

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