In one ‘gentle’ comment at Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs), Jeremy Corbyn disgraced every single Conservative MP in the chamber.
Optics
The Labour leader focused on issues other than Brexit during the session. And since consecutive Conservative-led governments have decimated many aspects of public life over the last eight years, there’s no shortage of topics for him to choose from.
So Corbyn took a swipe at the government’s failing benefit payment, universal credit. He also raised the recent devastating UN report on austerity and poverty in Britain. Corbyn then spoke about foodbanks, and the recent ‘interest’ they have gained from Conservative MPs. He said:
The Trussell Trust has also pointed out that foodbanks face record demand this December. I just gently say to her and the members behind her, foodbanks are not just a photo opportunity for Conservative MPs who themselves… supported the cuts in benefit that have led to the poverty in this country.
As the Canary previously reported, Conservative MPs have been falling over each other to visit foodbanks of late. Numerous MPs then posted pictures of themselves doing so. That’s why Corbyn called them out in the commons for using foodbanks as a “photo opportunity”. And he also pointed out that those MPs righteously posing for these publicity shots have voted for the very cuts that made foodbanks necessary in the first place.
Indifference
The level of hypocrisy, cynicism and indifference to people’s suffering such public displays reveal is staggering. But it’s not unusual. Indeed, when Corbyn raised the fact that the chief economist at the Bank of England described the last 10 years as a “lost decade” for wages, Theresa May laughed:
https://twitter.com/MikeSegalov/status/1070293664474243073
After Corbyn called her out for chuckling, the prime minister defended her party’s choice to throw millions of people under the bus. She said Conservative governments had to make “difficult decisions” because Labour financially crippled the country the last time it held power.
This isn’t true. A global financial crash in 2008, originating in the US, crippled the UK financially, along with many other countries in the world. Meanwhile, the UK government didn’t make “difficult decisions” affecting the wealthiest in Britain, just ones that would screw over the most disadvantaged people.
In reality, consecutive Conservative governments have made the ideological choice to shrink the state in terms of the support it provides to people most in need and to the wider population. And now MPs from that governing party are promoting themselves as champions of those left destitute as a result.
They’re an absolute disgrace.
Featured image via RT UK/YouTube
