Coronavirus-related Poverty

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:47 pm on 1 December 2020.

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Photo of Huw Irranca-Davies Huw Irranca-Davies Labour 1:47, 1 December 2020

First Minister, we know that the financial blow of coronavirus has fallen hardest on those who are already disadvantaged, and this has come on top of a decade of Tory austerity, and that despite the efforts of Welsh and devolved Governments to mitigate this, the impact, cumulatively, of the UK Government's benefits cuts and delays and penalties has punished the lowest paid and the lowest income and vulnerable households.

The Conservatives promised us years ago that austerity would be borne by those with the broadest shoulders, yet they loaded it on those already bowed down under debt and poverty. So, would he agree with me that Boris Johnson's proposals to cut universal credit, cut working tax credit, and freeze public sector pay suggests that we are seeing the same old Tory party attacking the very poorest working families and households in Wales?