LONDON: British Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday faces her first parliamentary challenge since a disastrous election earlier this month, in a vote on whether to maintain increasingly unpopular austerity measures.
The opposition Labour party is hoping to exploit concerns within May's Conservative party that voters are tiring of its seven-year spending squeeze.
The Conservatives lost their majority in the House of Commons in the June 8 election, after Labour performed better than expected with a left-wing offer of tax increases and public sector investment.
Finance Minister Philip Hammond subsequently admitted that people were "weary of the long slog", adding that his party was "not deaf" to voters' concerns.
The annual British Social Attitudes survey, published Wednesday by the National Centre for Social Research, found that 48 percent of people want higher taxes to pay for more public spending -- the highest level in a decade.
Labour has tabled an amendment to the Queen's Speech -- the government's legislative agenda -- calling for an end to budget cuts for the police and fire service, and to years of below-inflation public sector pay rises.
The vote is expected at around 1800 GMT.
"You can't have safety and security on the cheap. It is plain to see that seven years of cuts to our emergency services have made us less safe," said party leader Jeremy Corbyn.
The Conservatives should have just enough numbers to win Wednesday evening's vote, after striking a deal to stay in office with a smaller Northern Irish party -- secured with the promise of £1 billion (1.1 billion euros, $1.3 billion) in new funding for the province.
The Conservatives have 317 seats in the 650 seats in parliament and would be supported by the Democratic Unionist Party's 10 MPs.
But Labour wants to force the government to publicly defend public spending cuts, with an eye on the prospect of another election if May cannot hold on.
The prime minister called the snap vote to strengthen her hand going into Brexit negotiations, but lost her majority, and with it, much of her authority.
"Labour is ready and waiting to form a government with the policies and the plan to build a country that works for the many, not the few," Corbyn said.
Momentum, a left-wing, grassroots organisation that grew out of Corbyn's bid for the Labour leadership in 2015, announced Wednesday that it was already gearing up for another election.
Outlining plans to start campaigning in marginal seats, train volunteers and establish new ways to engage voters, national organiser Emma Rees said: "We must stay on the front foot."
Comments
Comments are closed.