Chancellor Reeves adamant she will ‘make sure the sums add up’
Rachel Reeves gave an interview with Laura Kuenssberg this morning in which she emphasised the ‘mess’ she says the Conservatives have left behind, and restated that Labour would not spend outside of its fiscal rules. Kuenssberg asked the Chancellor whether she would be prepared to ignore the recommendations of the independent pay review bodies, which have called for a public sector pay rise of 5.5 per cent. Reeves would not confirm the government’s position, but accepted that ‘there is a cost to not settling’ public sector pay disputes, implying she might be open to above-inflation pay increases.
What is Labour doing for the poorest in the country?
Kuenssberg reminded Reeves that she had often spoken about those who were ‘genuinely struggling to put food on the table’ in the election campaign, and pointed out that Labour isn’t yet doing anything to immediately help those people. Reeves claimed that the creation of GB Energy would bring energy bills down and that the new Employment Rights Bill would turn the minimum wage into a ‘real living wage’, and ban exploitative zero-hours contracts. Kuenssberg argued that those were long-term reforms and said that removing the two-child benefit cap would lift half a million children out of poverty. Reeves said doing so would cost £3 billion a year and that Labour would not commit to anything unless it knew where the money was coming from.
Hunt accuses Reeves of spin to lay the ground for tax rises
Shadow chancellor Jeremy Hunt described Reeves’s depiction of Labour’s dire economic inheritance as ‘absolute nonsense’. He claimed that the situation the Conservatives faced after taking power in 2010 was worse, with inflation and unemployment almost double what it is now, as well as ‘markets collapsing’. He said Reeves should ‘be honest’ that she is setting the public up for tax rises. Kuenssberg pointed out that government debt is the highest it has been since 1962, unemployment has started to rise again and people have been feeling ‘terribly hard up’. Hunt referred again to the three massive economic shocks the Conservatives have had to contend with in recent years, and said that ‘despite those pressures, we grew faster than… many other similar countries’.
Ben Houchen: ‘really positive thing that (Labour) is doubling down on devolution’
On Sky News, Trevor Phillips spoke to Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen, who is the only Conservative mayor in the country. Houchen spoke positively about Starmer’s decision to invite all the mayors to Downing Street in a show of support for devolution. Houchen said Starmer recognises that ‘mayors across the country are absolutely essential if he wants to achieve his growth goals’. He also mentioned that Starmer had invited him for a personal meeting – and said he had appreciated ‘that olive branch’.
Violinist Nicola Benedetti argues that creativity is vital for education
Kuenssberg also spoke to violinist and Edinburgh International Festival director Nicola Benedetti, who argued that music and expressive arts should be ‘part of a first-class education for everyone’. Benedetti said that we, as a society, should ask whether art is an important ‘civic pillar’ that needs to ‘prosper and grow’, and that she was excited to talk to ‘new characters’ in the changed political landscape. Benedetti argued that the imagination of young people was needed to overcome the problems of today. When Kuenssberg asked if that meant more money for education, Benedetti responded: ‘Absolutely.’
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