Abuse of Power and Neglect at Heart of Labour Government

The Labour Government is abusing its power. With the cash-for-peerages fiasco and the BAe corruption scandal, this is hardly news. Yet my main concern is the way it shares out taxpayers’ money – especially to areas like Kingston.

Britain is a highly centralised country. The Chancellor controls around 96% of total tax revenue, with councils only raising 4%. So decisions by a few Ministers – whether on funding of health or councils – determine how much cash communities spend.

And it’s this power of allocating Whitehall cash that is being abused. There is mounting evidence that areas with Labour MPs are getting more money than areas with Conservative or Liberal Democrat MPs.

Take our local NHS deficits. Kingston’s Primary Care Trust’s budget increases have been slower than elsewhere, and now we’re facing cutbacks. Yet there are PCTs in Labour-dominated Northern areas with surpluses, because they can’t spend the dollops of cash Ministers have given them.

Take the council’s budget. Labour Ministers have cut Kingston’s grant in real terms for next year. We now get only £210 per resident whilst the average London Borough gets £480 per head – and that pushes up council tax. When I raise this unfairness with Ministers, they don’t care – so we must continue to campaign and I’ve now requested a special debate to put Kingston’s case.

Cynics say the same thing happened under the Conservatives – when Boroughs like Wandsworth were favoured. Yet under John Major, Kingston wasn’t favoured, so that excuse won’t wash. Britain needs a fairer way of distributing taxpayers’ money and greater local say over budgets – whether in the NHS or local authorities.