PCS sets out progressive economics for a progressive society

Our TUC fringe meeting heard Fran highlight our 3 new policy documents:

1. On the case Safe Routes for asylum seekers

2. On the social security system

3. On the need for tax justice.

Fran said the message don’t scapegoat migrants or benefit claimants and tax the rich instead is one “we should be sending loud and clear to this government. And the message that the Labour government could be taking to the country. There is an alternative.”

Fran said the government doesn’t have to pick the pockets of pensioners; there are billionaire bosses with far more cash to spare.

She said: “You don’t have to mug disabled people, there are corporations paying lower taxes rates than their cleaners – and less than companies in every G7 nation. But perhaps the most painful thing for all of us to see is the debate over asylum – the toxification of that debate by the far right, Reform, the Tories and yes by Labour too.”

Defending refugees’ rights

Fran said that our members want small boat crossings to stop, because “they are dangerous for those in them.”

“But we have to defend the rights of refugees, the right to claim asylum,” she said.

She said that the political debate in the past couple of years has been dominated by small boats, Rwanda, asylum hotels and increasingly violent protests and even riots by an emboldened far right. She said PCS was proud to have taken the last government to court and blocked the Rwanda policy from ever being implemented – working with Care4Calais and others.

“We represent thousands of our members in the Home Office and in the Coastguard service. Our members are on the frontline – on the borders and processing asylum claims,” she said.

“We don’t want people dying in our members’ arms as they drown in the Channel. In the last few years, over 200 people seeking sanctuary in this country have drowned while making that perilous crossing – one-third of them children.”

We can stop the boats, we can smash the gangs, and we can protect the right of refugees.

Fran said that there is only way to stop the boats, smash the people smuggling gangs and protect refugees’ rights and that is through our safe routes – refugee visa-to-travel proposal.

Fran concluded by stressing that Reform and others love whipping up division over refugees because they provide a scapegoat.

She said: “For Reform it is very convenient if people are divided against their neighbours, rather than looking at the corporate bosses underpaying them, the corporate landlords hiking rents and the hypocritical politicians dodging their taxes. Reform won’t improve working people’s lives, but they will give you someone to blame.

“That’s why this Labour government must implement safe routes, tax the rich and redistribute wealth, and stop cutting benefits for working class people, not just because they’re all PCS policies, but because they’re the only way to defeat Reform.”

Angela Grant, PCS DWP Group President, told the meeting that PCS has the ability to effect change, but we need to work with other unions to bring it about.

“In DWP we see poverty in its purest form and if we don’t provide enough money to those out of work there is less money and less spending and you have a stagnant economy,” she said.

John McDonnell, PCS Parliamentary Group Chair, highlighted that the UK is the sixth richest country in the world but has grotesque levels of inequality.

He said that the Labour government had failed economically, socially, politically and morally.

“Rachel Reeves fiscal rules were a huge mistake and has held us back,” he said.

“Fiscal rules prevent the redistribution of wealth and leads to social and economic failure. And also, political failure with disillusionment setting in very early with the Labour government.”

He said we need fair taxation and redistribution of wealth to change the system, so we have the resources communities need.

Find reports from PCS at TUC 2025 on the dedicated page and news, updates and daily round-ups from Congress on our social media – the hashtag is #TUC25