The leader of Northumberland Labour Group says the government should not be making cuts and raising costs when individuals and families need support more than ever.

Labour Group leader Susan Dungworth said: “The UK has had the worst recession of any major economy, and is on course for one of the slowest recoveries in the world. It should not be families who have to pay for the Tories’ incompetence.

“When the government is asking so much of the British people, it makes no sense they are doing so little to support families, worried about paying the bills, covering childcare or coping with insecure work.”

Labour says it is hard to believe that, in the current climate, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak want to:

• hike council tax – a £1.9bn bombshell costing the average family £90 each;
• cut Universal Credit – taking £1,000 a year from millions of families and pulling another 200,000 children into poverty; and
• freeze pay for millions of key workers who have got us through this crisis including our armed forces, our care workers, our teachers and our firefighters.

  Susan continued: “At the start of this pandemic, Boris Johnson’s government pledged to do “whatever is necessary” to support local councils. However, in December the Conservatives abandoned that commitment. Conservatives are forcing councils to hike up council tax across the country during the worst recession in three centuries.

  “Labour is calling on the Government to put families first during this latest lockdown by backing local councils with funding to prevent the planned council tax rise, stopping the planned cut to Universal Credit, extending the ban on evictions and repossessions and giving key workers the pay rise they deserve.”