This morning, we are waking up to a new political landscape.
The Labour party has won the election.
I am excited about what this means for winning debt justice because a new government opens new opportunities for our campaigns.
Ahead of the election, Debt Justice supporters played a huge part in pushing the issue of unjust debt onto the agendas of all parties. Over the last six weeks, we made sure that MP candidates heard about our Together Against Debt People’s Manifesto to tackle the household debt crisis.
And together, we got the attention of party leaders on how a new debt justice law could force greedy lenders to the negotiation table and ensure debt cancellation for lower-income countries.
Because of the tireless campaigning of Debt Justice supporters, the Labour party made “tackling unsustainable debt” in lower-income countries a key priority in their election manifesto. While the Conservative manifesto included a commitment to “work to deliver debt relief” and the Green Party pledged to “increase climate finance for the global south”.
Now that we have a Labour government, together we can make sure they keep their manifesto pledges.
On household debt, Labour has committed to tackling economic insecurity which will be critical for tackling the household debt crisis. We will keep up the pressure on the new government to address the unsustainable debt weighing down communities as well as boosting the rights and protections of people in debt.
As we navigate this new political context, what hasn’t changed is the importance of building solidarity to create the change we all need. This means standing shoulder to shoulder with communities – here in the UK and across the global south – that are experiencing poverty and exploitation because of unjust debt. And taking their leadership and amplifying their demands to win systemic change.
Together, we’ve already laid the foundations to respond to the new political opportunities in front of us. I now look forward to the next part of our journey, as we push out the boundaries of what is possible.
I’m not saying it’s going to be easy. We still have so much to do but I really believe that the fight for debt justice is so inextricably linked to winning economic, climate and racial justice.
And when we come together to build movements and take actions based on solidarity and resistance, we are powerful!
We’ll soon be launching new campaign actions to take and other ways you can get involved and make the most of the new opportunities ahead. Make sure you get all our updates and actions direct to your inbox by signing up to our emails – and together, we can build solidarity, win campaigns and take ground for economic justice.