Labour needs to be more critical of Sunak`s policies

Whilst Anneliese Dodds is clearly right to say that the chancellor should have "introduced a job recovery scheme that incentivised employers to keep more staff on", Labour`s criticism of the government`s business and workers` support policies is, sadly, another example of Starmer`s opposition appearing to do "too little, too late" (Boost support for employers or face jobless surge - Dodds, 09/10/20)! Months ago we learned that despite many of the FTSE-100 firms turning to the taxpayers to pay the wages of furloughed workers, the pay of their bosses had largely remained unchanged (Bosses of only a third of top firms have taken pay cuts, 05/08/20). Now we find out that Restaurant Group will pay obscenely high bonuses to its CEO who has overseen the closure of 200 of its outlets with 4,500 job losses, despite the company "still making use of the government`s job retention furlough scheme". In a similar vein, greedy supermarkets like Tesco and Morrisons, pay out massive dividends to shareholders which equate approximately with the amounts saved from the government`s business rates holiday (Tesco to pay £315m dividend after enjoying rates holiday, 08/10/20)! Labour should have been demanding from the start, and with more measures on the cards for next week, repeating more vociferously now, that all government aid to the private sector should be accompanied by strict conditions. Reining in bosses`pay, tax commitments, closing pay gaps, suspending dividends, and pledges on new technology and apprenticeship schemes should be among the conditions for the receipt of any financial aid from the government. Instead we get murmurings from Tory propagandists about "unsustainable borrowing", questionable levels of national debt, and the need to cut back government spending, with hints of tax rises being necessary.. And they`re still claiming to be "one nation Tories"!!