After 13 years of Tory mismanagement and short-termism, working people are significantly worse off. Today’s Autumn Statement will do nothing to change the Government’s appalling record and improve people’s quality of life – another Tory blunder.

The Chancellor opened his Autumn Statement by proclaiming that the Conservative Party is not a party of high tax. But he is wrong. Under the Tories, taxes have risen to their highest level in 70 years. After 13 years, growth is down and mortgages, prices, taxes and debt are all up. Public services are on their knees and people are sicker for longer.

Unlike the King’s Speech, the Chancellor did at least talk about the NHS, but his proposals won’t make a difference to patients or staff. Firstly although the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan will double the number of medical places from 2025, it does not reverse 13 years of underinvestment and the previous freeze of nursing and medical places. It takes several years to train a doctor, so we won’t see the impact of this for decades to come. Plus the plan does not mention fair pay or plans to improve crumbling hospitals or how they will convince doctors not to leave for Australia, New Zealand or Canada. One of Labour’s five missions is to build an NHS fit for the future: that is there when people need it; with fewer lives lost to the biggest killers; in a fairer Britain, where everyone lives well for longer.

The Chancellor spent much of his speech demonising the sick and disabled and claimed his Back to Work plan is the magic solution. He is right to say that there is a high number of economically inactive people, that is to say the proportion of working-age people who are neither working nor looking for work. However according to the House of Commons Library, long-term sickness is the most common reason that people leave the workplace. The NHS waiting list stands at a record 7.8 million – that’s half a million more than when the Prime Minister made it one of his five pledges to bring them down nearly a year ago, and on his watch, 2.5 million people are too sick to work with the majority also suffering from mental health issues. If the Chancellor wants people back into work, he needs to focus on improving the NHS and ensuring people can get he care they need. Labour will work to improve access to GPs and we will double the number of district nurses and train 5,000 more health visitors. A healthy and happy population is the best way to improve productivity and it’s disappointing that the Chancellor has failed to acknowledge this and instead, focused on stigmatising and punishing vulnerable people.

After a decade of abandoning housebuilding targets and leaving renters out in the cold, the Chancellor attempted to reverse history on the housing crisis hurting so many people in Hornsey & Wood Green. Labour has long been calling for reform to the rigid and archaic planning system and to prioritise housebuilding in towns and cities – so I’m glad the Chancellor has “borrowed” some of our plans. But I do not believe the Tories can be trusted on housing or real reform to the private rented sector. They have already watered down the Renter’s Reform Bill and housebuilding has yet again dropped to its lowest levels since the pandemic. Things are so bad that this week, the Young Conservatives Network announced it was disbanding due to the lack of ambition in key policy areas such as housing, childcare and education – proof that the Tories are not interested in the future, growth or intergenerational equity.  After Liz Truss crashed the economy and sent mortgage rates sky rocketing, millions of families are still paying the price. What will the Government do for my constituents in Crouch End and Muswell Hill who are suffering from record-high rents and unaffordable mortgages? Today, I demanded that the government take responsibility for the housing crisis but as usual, they would prefer to blame others.

One of the biggest issues raised by my constituents and their families is the lack of affordable adult social care. Due to continuous Tory cuts to local authorities, many elderly and disabled people are going without the care they need. Long-promised social care reforms have been repeatedly postponed, leaving thousands unable to access care or burning through their life’s savings to pay for their own care. The Chancellor could have set things right today, but he chose to ignore this crisis. That’s why I raised my concerns about this government’s failed pledge to reform adult social care once and for all. I would like to see a National Health Service, something that Labour has promised to introduce, so that older and disabled people in Hornsey and Wood Green and across the country can have the dignity, care and quality of life they deserve.

The Chancellor said today that his government “takes decisions for the long term”, but we have only seen selfishness and short-termism. People feel poorer than 13 years ago and the Tories can only blame themselves. For example, real average weekly earnings (total pay) under the Tories have gone up by £19 -or 3% since they came into government in May 2010. In contrast, when Labour were in power between May 1997 and May 2010 wages went up by £139 a week – or 27%. Disposable income has shrunk in the last 13 years and households are struggling to pay for record-high rents or mortgages, food costs (up by 30% in the last two years) as well as stubbornly high energy and water bills. Today’s Autumn Statement confirmed the truth – the Conservatives have become the party of high tax because they are the party of low growth, zero ambition and no action.

Only a Labour Government will tackle the cost of living crisis, grow our economy, support the vulnerable, and make work pay.