Gavin Shuker MP

“We are paying down Britain’s debts.”

So said David Cameron a couple of months ago. And with the amount of pain that many of Luton’s families are experiencing, you might have assumed he was correct to say so.

The plan to rebuild our crumbling schools has been scrapped. Tax credits for the lowest paid in work will be squeezed; tuition fees for our students will treble; pay rises for our workers have been cancelled. Luton Borough Council is seeing its budget halved, meaning difficult decisions for every service which isn’t required by law.

So here is the curious thing: Britain’s debt isn’t going down. It’s going up – and going up by a lot. This Tory-led government will borrow more in five years than the last Labour government borrowed in thirteen.

Surely some mistake?

Surely some mistake, I hear you say. The Deputy Prime Minister recently claimed his government is “wiping the slate clean of debt.” That nice Nick Clegg wouldn’t say one  thing and then do another, would he?

Well, unfortunately he did. In the aftermath of the financial crisis, the national debt was £800 billion. It’s now on course to rise to £1.6 trillion. Apparently, “paying down Britain’s debts” means doubling it.

The deficit – the gap between the money coming in and the money going out each year – is around £120 billion. That’s how much we borrowed this year. It’s almost exactly the same amount as we borrowed last year, and that we are projected to borrow next year as well.

Each year that goes by the debt goes up and up.

Is this alarming? Did you think, despite all the pain, that Cameron and Osborne had at least made some progress towards getting our balance sheet back in order?

Well, if you were labouring under that misconception, don’t worry. Because almost everyone else in the country thinks the same as you did. The polls show that, depending on how you frame the question, only between 8% and 12% realise the national debt is rising.

A plan for jobs and growth

So, what to do? Well first, we need to realise that without growth in the economy, we’ll never get the economy back into balance. By cutting spending too far and too fast, this government has choked off the recovery. Some economists now even predict a triple-dip recession.

And secondly, David Cameron needs to start being straight with the British people. For short term political reasons he’s chosen to mislead us about the path of rising debt we are on. It would be better to be honest about it, so we can finally talk about the most pressing question of all – how do we get growth kick-started, and people back into work.

A number of constituents have contacted me about same-sex marriage, ahead of the vote at second reading – and subsequent to it.

The bill seeks to redefine marriage to incorporate same-sex couples; both in so-called ‘civil’ contexts – and in religious institutions who choose to ‘opt-in’ to the new definition.

Common with all major pieces of legislation, there will be a series of votes on this issue.

Despite talk of a ‘quadruple lock’ to protect religious conscience, these measures are themselves subservient to judgements of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

I remain concerned that a successful legal challenge could be brought as a result of the changes that would result in people of religious conviction being forced to solemnise marriages under this new definition. This is contrary to the government’s stated ambition.

Consequently, I have concluded that I cannot support the legislation as it moves through the House of Commons, and will not be voting for it.

A number of constituents have asked me about whether these votes will be ‘whipped’ or ‘free’. Having advocated forcefully for a free-vote, I am pleased to say that the Labour party will not be imposing a whip and as a result MPs will be able to vote in line with their conscience.

I should say the legislation is expected to pass with a significant majority in the House of Commons – and at second reading received 400 votes in favour, from a possible 650.

Photo Credit: Stuart Pinfold, stuart-pinfold.co.uk

It’s time to rethink the way our railway line runs.

I’ve been critical of First Capital Connect, particularly for their poor performance at the start of their franchise – and sharp price rises for passengers throughout their contract.

In Westminster I’ve been working hard to get a new operator for our packed commuter line. A hotly fought competition should have resulted in change this year – but government incompetence has put everything on hold.

The £6bn Thameslink upgrade programme has already caused the massive disruption on the route in recent years – but we are only half-way there. Before 2018, London Bridge station will have to be completely rebuilt, all new rolling stock introduced, and a timetable rolled out that allows for up to 24 trains an hour.

With the chance to pause to consider the best way forward now the process is suspended, I believe giving another franchise contract would be completely inappropriate. So I am calling on the government to introduce a management contract instead – with far less freedom for our new train operator to ‘innovate’!

They should be focussed on maintaining services through the disruption, not finding more and more ways to make money. Government would set the terms – and the price. And if the train companies don’t like it, they don’t have to bid for it.

Long term, we need to completely rethink how to fix the botched Tory privatisation of our railways. But right now, government should put passengers first, starting with Thameslink.

What is a management contract?

Management contracts have been used in the past when major upgrade works are being implemented – such as the ongoing programme of works on the Thameslink route through to 2018. Under the Thameslink upgrade programme, London Bridge station will be completely rebuilt, all new rolling stock introduced, and a timetable will be created that allows for up to 24 trains per hour.

Under a franchise agreement, the Department for Transport’s decision about who should get a contract is usually based on how much money a bidder will pay back to the government. Critics say this gives an incentive to drive down standards and drive up profits.

Under a management contract the agreement is much more restrictive – defining how much money it expects to receive and getting train operating companies to compete over the quality of the service delivered. In practice it can be far less profitable for the Train Operating Company too.

Why now?

Following the government’s mishandling of the West Coast Mainline franchise process, Richard Branson’s Virgin Trains launched a legal bid to expose inadaquacies in the Department for Transport’s approach. When the government accepted that there were problems, all pending franchise agreements were put on hold while the process was reviewed.

Richard Brown, the Eurostar Chairman, was tasked with reviewing rail franchising, and concluded that the new Thameslink franchise was a good candidate for letting under a management contract.

As the snow this week, I voted to block the government’s decision to restrict the rise of most in-work benefits to 1%.

In Luton alone 20,000 households are affected – on a low income already, they’ll have to get by with less from this April – while millionaires get a big tax cut and more spending power.

Since the financial crash in 2008, welfare spending has been up. But under this government, the amount we are spending is far higher than even the Tories predicted – because there’s no growth and stubbornly high unemployment.

Instead of getting people off benefit and back into jobs, or saying it’s the duty of government to protect those on a low income, everyone gets a smaller piece of the pie. Except the rich, of course. On average, everyone who earns more than £1m will get an extra £100k in their back pocket this year.

It’s the oldest trick in the book. Instead of engaging people in a debate about the big picture – that our economy has stalled and inequality is rising, they try to distract us in a debate about the small picture – fighting over the scraps that fall from the table.

They’d rather we fight over shirkers and strivers; benefit cheats and hard working families. And all the time we turn on each other, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, aided and abetted by this government.

The Political Slot: Gavin Shuker from Gavin Shuker on Vimeo.