Happy New Year? Maybe not for Keir Starmer’s Labour, as it grapples with the twin issues of the economy and the NHS, says ANDREW FISHER in his first column of 2025
This year is likely to be a very tricky one for the Labour government, and not just because of the rantings of American-based billionaires or their pipsqueak cheerleaders here in Britain.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government will succeed or fail depending on whether people feel better off. The Conservatives were kicked out last July – slumping to their worst election defeat in history – and rightly so: they had overseen the worst Parliament for living standards on record.
Every poll tells us that the No1 issues for voters is the cost-of-living crisis. Starmer recognised this when he delivered a speech just before Christmas setting out his milestones, which made raising household incomes the priority.

New Year Resolutions: the public spending less money is bad news for the economy
But after Christmas, the Resolution Foundation published a report forecasting that average “disposable income is likely to fall” in 2025. Happy New Year, Rachel Reeves.
This really shouldn’t come as a surprise as the Office for Budget Responsibility’s published analysis alongside October’s Budget said that the level of real household disposable income per person will be 1.25% lower by the start of 2029 than was forecast in March 2024.
The economy cannot grow while people’s incomes remain suppressed and are being constantly eroded by higher bills (energy bills rose by 10% in October and then by another 1.2% in January), higher housing costs (rents are rising above inflation) and taxation (the outgoing Conservative government froze income tax thresholds, trapping evermore numbers of low-paid workers into the tax-paying bracket, and Labour retained the policy).
Council Tax is also likely to rise by 5% in April in most councils across the country. Continue reading →
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