David Cameron and George Osborne have presided over an unprecedented cost of living crisis. Yet listening to the Prime Minister on Wednesday you might be left with the impression that the economy has been fixed and that life is getting easier for most people. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.
The truth is that under the Tories working people are £1,600 a year worse off. David Cameron may think that people struggling to make ends meet up and down the country are going to be fooled by unfunded pie in the sky pre-election tax cuts promised for six years time. I think not.
David Cameron circa 2008 had it right. "You can't talk about tax reduction unless you can show how it is paid for, the public aren't stupid". But's that's exactly what we saw on Wednesday.
These "tax cuts" are an unfunded spending commitment of over £7billion.
£7billion.
That's not exactly lose change.
How are the Tories going to pay for it? Will they raise VAT on families and pensioners again? It's no wonder the Tories are so desperate to block Labour's plans to allow the independent Office for Budget Responsibility to audit the spending and tax plans of the main political parties.
The only thing we have learnt for sure this week from the Tories is that they're going to cut tax credits for millions of hard working people. This announcement on Monday means that a one earner family with two children on £25,000 a year will lose £495 by 2017/18. This week, the Institute of Fiscal Studies showed that the changes in the personal allowance will see the same family's income increase by just £176 in 2020/21.
So while working families see their incomes decrease, Wednesday's announcements means that the Prime Minister and Cabinet Minister will see their incomes increase by 2020/21. And let's not forget that the richest one per cent will keep a £3billion tax cut. This doesn't look like "we're all in this together" to me.
And if there is one decision taken by the Tories that tells us all we need to know about their priorities and who they stand for, then their tax cut for millionaires is it. Labour will balance the books as soon as possible in the next Parliament, but we will make fairer choices. A Labour Government would cut taxes for millions on middle and low incomes with a lower 10p starting rate of tax and reintroduce a top rate of 50p for those earning over £150,000.
And we will reverse the neglect of the NHS under the Tories.
Despite everything he says, David Cameron has made it harder, not easier, to get a GP appointment. After the election, it was David Cameron who scrapped Labour's GP appointment guarantee and cut support for evening and weekend opening. The Prime Minister's broken promises on the NHS have now caught up with him.
So the next Labour Government will guarantee a GP appointment within 48 hours or a same-day consultation with a doctor or nurse for those who need it. And, as Ed Miliband and Ed Balls outlined last week, Labour's plan for the NHS means extra funding and a commitment to recruit 8000 more GPs and 20,000 more nurses. But, unlike David Cameron, we can tell you how we will pay for our plans.
The £2.5billion NHS Time to Care Fund will be funded by a mansion tax on homes worth more than £2million, tackling tax avoidance and asking tobacco firms to pay their fair share. This commitment is something the Tories won't match.
The truth is that only Labour will reward people who work hard and only Labour will save the NHS on which we all rely.
The truth is that the Tories will never build a better future for working people because they stand up only for a privileged few.
The truth is that working people cannot afford five more years of David Cameron.