I regret voting Labour - they've let women down

[IwantToRetire]

Polling shows that women are falling out of love with Labour - thanks to economic policies that will hit them the hardest and 'unforgivable' aid cuts

The latest polling from YouGov shows that women are falling out of love with Labour fast. In the first month of Starmer’s government, only a third (32 per cent) of women said they “disapproved of the Government’s record so far”; by mid-February that figure had more than doubled to 68 per cent.

Part-time and low-income jobs, which are disproportionately held by women, are predicted to be hardest hit by the rise in employers’ NI contributions. In the childcare and social care sectors the impact is expected to be particularly tough, with the effects of those changes being felt primarily by women too. Both sectors are major employers of female labour, and when costs rise or their services are shut down, it is women’s lives that are affected too.

High-net-worth women are also disappointed. The Saltus Wealth Index polls people holding more than £250,000 in investable assets. It revealed that women in this group were slightly more likely than men to have voted Labour in last summer’s election, and that Labour was still the most popular party for wealthy women – but of the 38 per cent who voted Labour in July, 68 per cent now regretted their decision.

From an article in the "i" https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/regret-voting-labour-women-3580582

Can also be read at https://archive.is/zXtxe

Approval ratings don't mean shit, though, do they? And by the nature of things, Chancellors are never popular.

The OBR is a Quango of unelected officials set up by George Osborne in a cynical attempt to deflect the blame for cuts from him. Bin the OBR. Here's what I would do - a massive housebuilding programme of affordable housing which would provide a lot of employment and boost population growth which means the economy wouldn't have to rely so much on overseas labour to fill jobs. Couples with a roof over their heads wouldn't put off having children.

She’s doing particularly badly.

Halving growth and wiping out headroom. Trying to cover that up hasn’t gone down well, for most anyway.

No doubt by concreting all over the green belt and without the infrastructure to match! We dont have the skills to enable large scale house building and who is going to pay for "affordable" housing?

As I said before the election anyone expecting much from Labour was living in a fantasy world. Yes once parties are in government and they see what shit we are in their choices are more limited. Cant overly tax the really rich, they'll be off. The 10% of income taxpayers with the largest incomes already contribute over 60% of income tax receipts. The country cant afford the welfare state we currently have, you have to make cuts somewhere or tax everyone a bit more. We've bought too much Chinese crap and too little from within our own country.

Could maybe reintroduce higher rates of tax on "luxury" goods - anyone remember those taxes? Of course you need to be careful with that or the rich buy abroad. Changes to ISAs are probably coming, bringing pensions into inheritance tax is happening. Increase the age at which pensions are paid for all new entrants to any public sector pension scheme. You could introduce a tourist tax, you could introduce more council tax bands. Stamp duty could be further increased for foreign buyers of uk property. Higher capital gains on foreign owners of uk land and property maybe? Remove free prescriptions for those over 60 but under pension age, sweeten it by extending exemptions for certain conditions or reducing the cost of prepayment certificates.

I'm not a tax avoidance expert - there are probably loop holes to close still. Taxing larger farms was one of them, the threshold probably too low.

You could try to stimulate growth in different ways - increase gifting allowances for inheritance tax so people pass on more in their lifetime. Reduce Vat on any energy saving building work. Reform the honours system so those who donate more of their wealth to charity are honoured instead of sportspeople and others just doing their job and being well paid for it. Tax breaks for any car parks covered with solar canopies. Make men pay proper maintenance for their children, using the full range of powers.

Ideas from anyone else?

Ideas from anyone else?

Mine has always been a massive social housing building programme.

ie not only would it increase the housing stock at affordable (ha, ha) rents, but the employment of builders, use of building materials, and need for other supples would create jobs etc..

It is in fact meant to be one of Labour's committments, but suspect they cant pull it off.

And then I saw these headlines:

Labour shortages threaten housebuilding targets despite government’s training boost,
https://www.rsmuk.com/news/labour-shortages-threaten-housebuilding-targets-despite-governments-training-boost

Labour will fall far short of its 1.5 million homes target, says construction industry body
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-14508379/Labour-fall-far-short-1-5-million-homes-target-says-construction-industry-body.html

This is the problem for me.

I am not saying in the past everything was done well and on time(!) but more and more it seems nobody in the UK can get things done.

A lot of current housebuilding is really shoddy.

We dont seem to be able to work out actual costs effectively.

And we will probably have to allow a higher number of migrant workers with housing skills to get this to happen.

So at the very least I would go for higher taxes, and more effort to stop businesses who are offshoring their profits.

The organisations are calling for a two per cent wealth tax on those with net assets of over £10 million, which could raise an estimated £24 billion tax revenue each year - £460 million every week and would only apply to 0.04 per cent of the population - around 20,000 people.
https://www.oxfam.org.uk/media/press-releases/three-quarters-of-british-public-would-back-government-tax-increases-on-very-richest-versus-spending-cuts/

I feel the same and suspect many other do locally too.

Worrying with the by-election to replace Mike Amesbury in our constituency due in May.

I fear a Reform landslide.

The most popular message is 'let someone else pay', as always. 'Just' taxing the rich is not going to hack it. This what economists say, but politicians of the Left generally refuse to admit. I don't think a wealth tax is a bad idea, but we'll need a lot more than that.

We are already a desperately overcrowded little island, and you think increasing the population further is the answer? Utter madness.

No, I mean replacing the population with British born people. Old people die, just in case you didn't know.

Foreign aid cuts hit women and girls, minister admits

Lady Chapman insisted that the department would “integrate and mainstream” support for women and girls, something that organisations involved supported.

“If you work in development and you don’t have a passion for work on gender inequalities running through you, you’re in the wrong business.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/05/13/foreign-aid-cuts-to-hit-women-and-girls-jenny-chapman/
and at https://archive.is/2Q8N2

Surge in right-to-buy purchases could cancel out plans to build 18,000 homes

local authority statistics show that right-to-buy (RTB) applications increased dramatically last autumn, with numbers rising by as much as 100 times their usual rate as buyers rushed to beat the deadline and gain the maximum possible discount.

Councils warn that the number of homes that will now likely be sold could cancel out the Government’s pledge to build more than 18,000 more “social and affordable” homes.

This would undermine Housing Secretary Angela Rayner's commitment to “the biggest increase in social and affordable housing in a generation”,

One expert is describing the situation as “chaos” and comes as concerns grow over levels of homelessness and long waits for council houses.

https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/right-to-buy-surge-18500-council-homes-3686871

Of all the asset stripping that Tatcher implemented during her time as PM this is the one that has caused the most harm to the standard of living in the UK. And made family life virtually too expensive for many.

But Labour is at fault for not cancelling it once they got back into power, and now are only talking about changing the level of discount.

The privitisation of so many of the UK's assets whether to individuals or companies has been identified as one of the biggest factors in lower standards of living, making it more expensive to just survive.

And Labour seems wedded to it.

Agree with this.
Those of us who said during the Election threads that we wouldn’t vote Labour because of their treatment of women were often vilified by other mumsnetters.
Now here we are

Thousands more victims of domestic abuse, sexual violence, ‘honour’-based abuse and stalking will have access to specialist support services thanks to a boost of nearly £20 million announced by the Safeguarding Minister.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/vital-support-for-victims-in-20-million-funding-boost

Just adding this for "balance". But what isn't clear is whether this just brings funding up to past levels as there have been many statements about loss of funding by Women's Aid projects.

And when you see that some of this is going to helplines, obviously essential, it isn't really about growth.

And this was only a few months ago:

More than half of women fleeing domestic abuse turned away from safe refuge due to chronic shortages
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/domestic-abuse-women-refuge-shortages-b2455087.html