A parliamentary candidate (PPC) for the Conservative Party has told Premier Christian News that Christians should be looking to God to provide for their needs, as the number of people living in poverty in the UK exceeds 14.4 million.
Miriam Cates PPC for Penistone and Stocksbridge was speaking as part of a round table debate on poverty and the economy, addressing claims that conservative policies have left people in the UK without enough money to cover basic essentials such as food.
Cates said that while she sympathises with those who are struggling, conservative policies are not to blame, stating: “there is no easy answer to this issue.”
“I think we need to be realistic about what the state can do, and actually what our expectations of the state are as Christians” she said, suggesting that Christian communities have a vital role to play in supporting those in need. “Do we expect the state to provide for our needs or do we expect God and our community to provide for our needs?”
Cates said that a functioning welfare state is needed but questioned how we accomplish it and asking “who would you want to tax more?”
“Do we have more national debt, but that will push up inflation and make the cost of living crisis worse? Do we tax people more, but that makes work not worth it and then we put off wealth creators, there just aren’t any easy answers for this.” “This is not up to politics to solve,” Cates added.
She says an aging population has contributed to tax rises and that it is not a “political choice to cut benefits and tax more”, but rather a necessity due to the fact we have less working people.
According to the latest data from foodbank charity the Trussell Trust, 780,000 people on Universal Credit were forced to use a food bank in January while 3.1million emergency parcels were distributed by the charity’s network of foodbanks in the past 12 months
