Politics latest: Budget a 'choice between investment or decline', minister says; Reform MP calls slavery reparations 'absurd' (2024)

Key points
  • Bridget Phillipson unable to say if tax pledge for whole of parliament
  • But government source says pledge is valid for the full term
  • Choice between 'investment or decline', says education secretary
  • Street incident involving Labour MP a 'matter for police,' says minister
  • Mayors to score wins in the budget after PM intervenes
  • Chancellor Rachel Reeves to pledge £1.4bn for crumbling schools
  • Analysis:Starmer returns to growing storm over rumoured budget tax rises
  • Labour MP says he was involved in 'incident' where he 'felt threatened'
  • Live reporting by Faye Brown

13:45:01

Badenoch doubles down on Jenrick attack

As we have just reported (see post 13.27), Robert Jenrick has hit out at Ms Badenoch for suggesting she is a better fit to be Conservative leader because she has "never been sacked" amid a "whiff of impropriety".

She was referring to Mr Jenrick's role in a planning row when he was housing secretary in 2020, but he hit back today, saying she had reduced the contest to "personal attacks and insults".

Asked about her remarks, made to The Telegraph newspaper, Ms Badenoch said she was "asked a question" by the newspaper "and I answered it".

Speaking to GB News' Camilla Tominey show, she said: "The public don't trust Conservatives any more. This is not a general election. This is not about how many policies and what the new manifesto can be. It's about what kind of person do the party members want? And I am talking about me."

She described herself as someone who "has conviction" and isn't saying "anything new now just because it's a leadership contest".

"I'm somebody who's been portraying those values for a very long time. And I also say that given the public don't trust us, you want somebody who hasn't been sacked, who hasn't had any of those sorts of issues. And that is the difference between us."

13:27:43

Row between Tory leadership rivals escalates over Badenoch 'insults'

A row between the final two Tory leadership contenders has heated up after Kemi Badenoch appeared to take a swipe at Robert Jenrick's record.

In an interview with the Telegraph, former business secretary Ms Badenoch said she has "never been sacked" amid a "whiff of impropriety".

She said: "Integrity matters … with me you'd have a leader where there's no scandal. I was never sacked for anything, I didn’t have to resign in disgrace or, you know, because there was a whiff of impropriety."

The Telegraph said Ms Badenoch was referring to Mr Jenrick's involvement in a planning dispute when he was housing secretary in 2020. He faced calls to resign and was later sacked after he fast-tracked planning permission for a £1bn scheme in east London two weeks before the property developer Richard Desmond donated £12,000 to the Conservative party.

The pair had sat next to each other at a fund-raising dinner, at which Mr Desmond showed the minister a video of the development on his mobile phone.

It was hugely controversial because Mr Jenrick's decision, later overturned, saved the tycoon £45m in a local tax on property developments in the borough of Tower Hamlets.

Asked about Ms Badenoch's comments, Mr Jenrick told GB News' Camilla Tominey show that he "will never be ashamed of trying to get homes built in this country".

He said he is"proud" of the way the contest has been conducted, naming all the other contenders bar Ms Badenoch as having "worked together as a team".

"We've debated ideas and policies. It is a great shame that Kemi has chosen at this last minute to sully that. To trade personal attacks and insults.

"If Kemi does this to Conservative colleagues, this will be the death of the Conservative Party. I want to end the drama.

"You cannot claim to be a unity candidate and go making ad hominem attacks on Conservative colleagues."

12:58:52

Daughter of murdered MP says Prevent programme 'failed him'

The daughter of murdered MP Sir David Amess said he was "catastrophically" failed by the government's Prevent programme, as she called for a full inquest into his death.

The veteran MP, 69, was stabbed to death by Ali Harbi Ali, then aged 26, at Belfairs Methodist Church in Leigh-on-Sea in Essex in October 2021.

Katie Amess, 39, said she was told Ali had been reported to Prevent in 2014, but after one meeting his case was not followed up by the anti-radicalisation programme "due to an admin error".

She told the Sunday Times: "He was reported. People were trying to help us, and so why was he allowed to just go on and do whatever he wanted for seven years?

"What happened to my dad should not have been an admin error."

Ms Amess, an actress who lives in West Hollywood in the United States, said the pain of his death was "unbearable" and "unspeakable".

She said there had never been a "full public examination into the events leading up to his death".

11:18:01

Labour 'misled British public' over tax promises

Chris Philp has become the latest Tory to accuse Labour of lying to the British public to get elected.

As we reported earlier (see post 10.46) shadow science secretary Andrew Griffith claimed the government is behaving like a "dodgy hire car firm" over their budget plans.

It has been speculated that Labour will raise the employer element of national insurance, despite a pledge not to raise national insurance (NI) in the manifesto.

Labour have said the promise only ever referred to the working element of NI, and their manifesto made clear tax rises would not apply to "working people" - leaving the door open for other forms of revenue raisers.

Mr Philp told Sky News: "The story of this budget is going to be one of broken promises, and the fact that the Labour Party misled the British public.

"They lied to the British public during the election campaign. They said they wouldn't increase national insurance and it looks like they plan to do that."

11:05:34

'Too late to change Tory leadership rules before budget'

Chris Philp, shadow Leader of the House of Commons, has said it is too late to change the Tory leadership rules so a new boss is in place to respond to Wednesday's budget.

This is something the likes of Robert Jenrick, in the final two with Kemi Badenoch, has complained about.

The final result of the contest will be announced on Saturday 2 November, a few days after the budget, following a lengthy race that some Tories felt was needed in light of the scale of the general election defeat.

Asked if the timing of the race is a shame, Mr Philp told Sky News "that's a fair question...and there are different views on that".

"But they're not going to change the rules now and it's going to be Rishi Sunak who replies, it'll be the last significant thing he does as a conservative leader".

He added that the outgoing Tory leader has "got huge experience, as chancellor and prime minister. So I'm sure he will do a very good job".

10:46:11

Labour behaving 'like dodgy car hire firm' - shadow minister

The BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme has also heard from shadow science secretary Andrew Griffith.

He said Labour "essentially lie to the British people" in terms of their plans, and compared the party's behaviour to the "worst form of dodgy car hire firm".

"Already after 110 days, I think people are seeing that this government came in on a false prospectus that things would be easy.

"They essentially lie to the British people in terms of their plans, not to increase national insurance... not to change the fiscal rules".

The government has said their manifesto pledge not to raise national insurance only ever applied to the working element - fuelling speculation employer NI will go up in the budget.

The chancellor has recently changed how debt is calculated to borrow more to invest, which critics say effectively changes the self-imposed fiscal rules she had previously described as non-negotiable.

Mr Griffith said there is a "crisis of trust in politics", and Labour are behaving "at the very least like the worst form of dodgy car hire firm, conjuring up small print that never existed".

10:34:33

Smacking children won't be banned 'any time soon', says education secretary

Moving away from the budget, Ms Phillipson was asked on the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg whether the proposal by the children's commissioner to ban smacking was a good idea.

She said she is "open-minded" to a ban on smacking but it is not going to be a priority.

"We are considering it, but this is not an area where we intend to bring forward legislation any time soon."

She said she wants to hear more about how a ban would work.

"I'm open-minded on it. It's not something we intend to legislate on, but I think we do need to look at how we keep children safe."

She said measures set out in the Children's Wellbeing Bill, which will be brought forward "by the end of the year," will address many of the issues around children's social care and safeguarding.

10:28:16

Working people won't see higher taxes on their payslip, says minister

Earlier, we spoke to education secretary Bridget Phillipson about the budget.

She refused to comment on what would be in it, and stumbled over questions on whether a pledge not to raise taxes for working people was valid for the whole of this parliament. (It is, the government has since clarified - see post 9.30).

Ms Phillipson went onto face questions on the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, when she refused to be drawn on what the definition of a working person is.

She simply said that "when people look at their payslips, they will not see higher taxes."

Ms Phillipson refused to say whether a small business owner with an average net profit of around £13,000 would be considered a "working person" by the government.

"We can go through a range of different hypotheticals about who may or may not be captured by tax measures that may or may not happen in the Budget," she said.

"When Rachel is sat here next weekend you can ask her about the measures that she's announced.

"I know it's frustrating ahead of the Budget that I can talk about some areas, but not all of it."

10:08:16

Stop cutting petrol tax to raise money, says thinktank boss

Paul Johnson is now talking about what Ms Reeves could do to raise money to fill the blackhole.

Asked if the chancellor has boxed herself in with her fiscal rules, he says she has "clearly taken the view that national insurance (NI) didn't refer to employers" - referring to reports the employer part of NI will go up in the budget.

He adds: "If you need to raise £40bn you have to do something with NI, income tax or VAT. The way she is getting round that is to say it [the manifesto pledge not to raise personal taxes] didn't apply to the employer chunk of national insurance."

Asked where else the chancellor could look, he says £9bn of tax rises were already announced in the manifesto already - such as changes to Non Dom tax.

"Beyond that, I expect a change to capital gains tax, changes to tax of petrol".

He points that fuel duty has been frozen for around the last 15 years and says "we certainly need to stop cutting that".

09:55:48

Blackhole means chancellor could introduce one of the 'biggest tax rising budgets in history'

Paul Johnson, the director of the influential Institute for Fiscal Studies, says the UK's financial blackhole is "genuinely big".

He says the numbers being reported are"something that's hard to get your head round".

"Is a billion big or is 40 billion big? Well, 40 billion is big", he says.

The government has previously said the UK faces a £22bn blackhole but as we reported recently, Treasury insiders now believe it to be more than double that - £40bn.

Mr Johnson said: "If that is the scale of tax rises possibly it would be certainly one of the biggest tax rising budgets in history if we get something along those lines."

"If we are going to get spending rising in line with national income over the next few years you could easily get to a number like £40bn", he says, adding that this "is a genuinely big number in these kinds of circumstances".

Politics latest: Budget a 'choice between investment or decline', minister says; Reform MP calls slavery reparations 'absurd' (2024)

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