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Average person in Britain has lost out on £10,200 since Tories came to power, study says

EVERY part of Britain has been “levelled down” since the Tories came to power, with the average person losing out on £10,200.

The Centre for Cities think tank found that residents in Scotland were among the hardest hit, and could have been £23,000 better off if income growth had continued at the same rate as between 1998 and 2010.

Aberdeen lost out the most, with the research indicating that residents could have been £45,240 better off.

The report said the city has had a “difficult period” as the oil and gas sector “struggled in the 2010s” with an estimated 9,000 jobs lost in the industry.

Residents of Burnley, Cambridge, Glasgow and Milton Keynes were all more than £20,000 worse off than if their incomes had grown at the rates they had pre-2010. 

Centre for Cities chief executive Andrew Carter said that Britain has been “levelled down.”

He urged the government to “recognise that the British economy is an urban economy” and to focus on “devolving more powers and financial freedoms to encourage our big cities to make decisions that support growth.”

Labour MP Richard Burgon said: “This is not just an unfortunate outcome of Tory free-market policies, it was their very aim. 

“The Tories have deliberately overseen a huge transfer of wealth from ordinary people to the privileged few.”

He called for taxing the rich to revitalise the economy.

Mick Whitley, Labour MP for Birkenhead, which saw the average person left £17,540 worse off, said the data “reveals the terrible price that’s been paid by working-class communities for 14 years of Tory austerity.

“A future Labour government needs to commit to finally burying the myth of trickle-down economics, ensure that the wealthy few pay their fair share, and restore a sense of security, confidence, and most of all hope to Britain’s real wealth creators: the working-class.”

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