CEO & founder of Resolve Poverty. @ResolvePoverty Working locally to end poverty nationally. UK @Acumen Fellow.
Manchester
Joined June 2011
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Graham Whitham retweeted
So predictable. Whatever the idea or crisis - Thatcherism, neoliberalism, the Third Way, globalisation, debt, pandemic etc - the prescription is always go after the incomes of the poorest. Instead of radical change we get tinkering within a broken system
theguardian.com/society/2026…
If only someone had come up with a plan to increase rail capacity down the west side of the country 🤔
Bid to run new trains on West Coast Mainline refused bbc.in/4zlZ0KO
Graham Whitham retweeted
Exactly! Just look at the variance here in Leicester 👇
Anyone at £1.80 will now be under more pressure to cut prices. Smart measure to reduce costs by making markets better, not worse!
Where’s the accountability for the system in how it equips people into and to stay in work? Its the system that needs some tough love.
We do need “tough love” for young people on benefits, as @KemiBadenoch outlines in The @spectator today.
But we also need “tough love” for older people too considering the State Pension, the biggest benefit by a mile, cost over £141 billion in 2025-26 and will likely cost £154 billion in 2026-27.
The State Pension Age should be 70 asap. There are lots of jobs that older people can and do do.
The State Pension should also be means-tested. By doing this, you could enhance financial support for the poorest pensioners.
This will enable an intra-generational transfer among the luckiest and wealthiest generation in history to reduce pensioner poverty.
Me on @GBNEWS
So frustrating that yet again the public debate around this is focusing on how much £ people get on benefits and not on how crap the country is at equipping people to get into & stay in work.
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Graham Whitham retweeted
No one should be condemned to a lifestyle that involves being unable to afford food, pay the bills or keep up with the rent.
Everyone should be able to afford essentials.
If you can work, you should.
Nobody should be able to live a lifestyle on benefits.
@Conservatives will make welfare fair to taxpayers and to those who work hard and do the right thing.
Graham Whitham retweeted
Sadly it's not what people believe.
There is a lot of hype about the UK social security spending.
The chart below shows Total UK social security spending as a percentage of GDP, 2013/14 to 2030/31 (spending and forecast)
55% goes to pensioners, the remainder covers everything else.
lordslibrary.parliament.uk/w…
Graham Whitham retweeted
The clamour for Labour to cut welfare is deafening.
This won’t make us more secure, help people into work or make real savings.
It’ll make people poorer and pile pressure onto services like the NHS - costing more in the long-run.
Cuts won’t create jobs. They create poverty.
Graham Whitham retweeted
The gap between rates of Local Housing Allowance and prevailing private rents is close to a record high.
Read how the government can fix it 👇️ buff.ly/tmfEAWh
ALT Chart showing gap between private rents and Local Housing Allowance, as a proportion of the LHA rate: Great Britain, April 2012 to March 2028 (projected from September 2026)
Graham Whitham retweeted
Universal Credit doesn't know the price of a milk. Or heating. Or the bus.
It doesn't cover the essentials, leaving millions with no option but to turn to a food bank.
✋ It's time we changed this. We're calling for Universal Credit to be set based on actual living costs.
ALT A graphic with photos of everyday essentials and text. The title reads 'Universal Credit
Graham Whitham retweeted
3 things to note on all the current tax debates:
1. Raising the income tax Personal Allowance does *not* benefit those on the lowest incomes most. It's people in the richest half of the country who mostly benefit.
(Although mainly middle earners rather than the very rich.)
Graham Whitham retweeted
For a country where food banks are still a thing, it’s a bit grim for #bbclaurak to push the tax complaints of a Monaco-based billionaire, concerns of high earners potentially being asked to pay slightly more tax & asking a journalist from a neoliberal publication to back her up
Graham Whitham retweeted
Jim Radcliffe grew up in a council house paid for by the state and went to a state school funded by public taxes.
Now he seems to think others don’t deserve the support he got. Why does he want even more money and to stop others having the opportunity to make any?
Graham Whitham retweeted
Jim Ratcliffe has lost confidence in the world’s 3rd largest innovation economy with two fifths of Europes high growth young companies. Ignorant and ill-informed this tax exile deserves no air time bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm04…
The gaul of business people who backed Brexit thinking they have something valid to say about the UK economy.
Graham Whitham retweeted
🚨 Ratcliffe’s constant running down of Britain is actually a promotion of a political project.
A class of mobile billionaires wants to transform Britain into a vast offshore platform: low taxes on wealth, weakened regulation, diminished public services, cheapened labour and national assets permanently open to global capital.
They want a strong state to protect private property, enforce contracts and subsidise business, but a weak one when citizens need healthcare, housing, benefits or security.
In effect, they want Britain run as a tax haven.
The billionaires can move their money, factories and tax residence across borders. Everyone who cannot move is left financing the country they hollowed out.
They get the tax haven and we get serfdom.
🤔 Maybe if people like Sir Jim Ratcliffe stayed in the UK to pay their taxes and didn’t back Brexit things would be a bit better.
Graham Whitham retweeted
And here's a table assessing all the recent tax cut proposals by their "bang for the buck": the £ of additional GDP we'll get for each £ deployed as a tax cut.
Pretty depressing that the tax cuts that get the most airtime are also the worst at driving growth.
Got to love this 🏉
Also, today it was confirmed Believe Square in Wigan town centre is going to be renamed 'Sir Billy Boston Square" ❤️
#SirBillyBoston #restinpeace #Wigan
Graham Whitham retweeted
Visitor levies are used in many great cities across the globe to improve the visitor offer.
A modest levy here would give us more money to support our visitor economy, while helping our businesses and communities to benefit from its continued growth.
