UNISON is urging activists and members to lobby their MPs and call for a general election in Westminster next Wednesday, 2 November.
The lobby takes place during the worst cost-of-living crisis in 50 years. Everything is going up but wages. The Tories crashed the economy with their mini-budget and all the signs are showing that they will try and fill the hole in public finances created by their own mistakes with a fresh wave of austerity.
This will place public services under unbearable strain, as they are still struggling to recover after the pandemic and 12 years of cuts and low investment.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has calculated that the cuts implied by the government’s economic mismanagement could lead to 200,000 jobs being lost. Added to this, further austerity will have implications for pay settlements in years to come and condemn millions of people who are dependent on benefits to poverty in the months ahead.
The lobby is an opportunity to tell MPs about the reality of the cost of living crisis and to make it clear that cuts are not the answer.
Instead, we need higher pay, investment in public services and for benefits to increase in line with inflation.
This government simply has no mandate for more cuts.
Where relevant, the lobby is also an important opportunity to speak with MPs about current pay disputes and ballots in the NHS, higher education, the Environment Agency, the Food Standards Agency and the Care Quality Commission.
The TUC is co-ordinating the lobby and helping to arrange the meetings with MPs. However, once you have signed up, UNISON will be in touch with you to provide a briefing note.
If your workplace is in a different constituency to where you live and you want to meet the MP for where you work, please enter the postcode for your workplace on the sign-up page.
The day will end with a rally at the Westminster Methodist Central Hall at 6-8pm. The rally will feature contributions from trade union members, general secretaries and celebrities and focus on the need for an election.
It’s time to let voters choose a new Westminster government.
