Olivier de Suter, the UN’s rapporteur on extreme poverty, said he was “extremely concerned” by potential multibillion-pound spending cuts – including possible reductions in real terms to welfare benefits for millions of the country’s poorest families. The government is set to unveil a tight budget on November 17 to plug an estimated £40bn black hole in public finances using tax rises as well as spending cuts. Speaking to the Guardian, the UN-appointed official, who has recently been investigating extreme poverty in Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon and Nepal, said: “This is the worst time to impose such cuts. You don’t impose austerity measures when the entire population is facing a cost of living crisis. What you’re doing is raising taxes on the rich, raising taxes on corporations.” Belgium’s De Schutter added: “The immediate reaction of many households will be to reduce the quality of their diets and ultimately their food consumption. “For children, learning is more difficult on an empty stomach and this is becoming a reality in the UK. This must not be allowed to happen.” His intervention came amid warnings from the Resolution Foundation thinktank that cuts should not exceed £20 billion – a spending freeze in real terms – that would usher in a new era of austerity. He wants taxes to take more of the load. Sunak and his chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, are considering increasing benefits by less than inflation, a cut in real terms, as well as raising some taxes – possibly by freezing income tax thresholds. It has been reported that last week they agreed that major cuts must be made to Whitehall departments and that real pay cuts are being considered for public sector workers, including nurses, police and teachers. On Thursday, the Bank of England will announce whether it will raise interest rates again, putting further pressure on household finances as it struggles to bring inflation down from around 10%, with the economy heading for recession. The Confederation of British Industry has warned against a “loophole of disaster” of public spending cuts and tax rises. De Schutter’s decision to speak reignites tensions between the UN and the UK government over poverty after his predecessor, Australian Philip Alston, made a ten-day visit to the UK in 2018 and concluded that the Conservatives governments had caused “great misery” with “punitive, ill-intentioned and often harsh” austerity policies driven by a political desire to undertake social reengineering rather than economic necessity. The government, led by Theresa May, hit back, saying it “completely disagrees”. De Schutter has now said he would like to make a follow-up visit, which would have to be agreed by the UK government, “given the context we are facing now, the very high rate of poverty and austerity kicking back”. “There is a clear requirement in human rights law not to adopt regressive measures,” he said. “Not aligning social benefits or minimum wages with the increased cost of living is a regressive measure, so the government would be in breach of its international human rights obligations if it cut social benefits [in real terms]and that’s what we might see happening.” In response, a Treasury spokesman said: “Our number one priority is economic stability and maintaining confidence that the UK is a country that pays its own way. The Prime Minister and Chancellor have been clear that this will require some difficult decisions, but protecting public services and the most vulnerable will be a priority.” Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. They also mentioned the existing energy price cap and £1,200 cost of living payments to the most vulnerable households. Like Alston, De Shutter is a leading international human rights lawyer. He previously served as the UN rapporteur on the right to food, was a member of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and is a professor at UC Louvain in Belgium and Sciences Po in Paris. The UK is a party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which states that any regression in rights in one area must be offset by progress in other areas. For example, if housing becomes more expensive, health care becomes cheaper. Already, 22% of the UK population – 14.5 million people – live in relative poverty, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Upgrading benefits in line with earnings, rather than inflation, would result in 450,000 more living in poverty in 2023-24 and 250,000 more living in ‘deep poverty’ – 50% below the poverty line – according to the Legatum Institute, based in London; conservative-leaning thinktank. “There is another path than austerity increasing poverty in the UK and that other path is much more progressive, raising taxes on the wealthiest households and companies, funding the continuation of the energy price guarantee and indexing social benefits in line with with inflation,” De Schutter said. “This path is what international human rights require of the UK.” De Schutter has previously warned that reversing the £20-a-week rise in universal credit during the pandemic would increase poverty levels in the UK. “These warnings were not heeded and Britain now faces a situation in which already very high levels of poverty will rise further as a result of the cuts expected to be announced on November 17,” he said. “So I’m extremely troubled by what’s going on.”
