John McDonnell – Businesses are not scared of Labour
Sophy Ridge began the day with an interview with the Shadow Chancellor. Ridge asked McDonnell about last week’s comments from the CBI’s director general Carolyn Fairbairn that Labour’s plans for businesses would ‘crack the foundations’ of the economy. McDonnell did not refer to concerns about nationalisation, but insisted that businesses were ready to back his prospectus:
SR: Do you think they are a bit scared of you?
JM: No, I don’t think they are… [Fairbairn is] representing some of her member organisations… but when I meet with asset managers, with pension fund managers and business leaders, I talk them through our investment plans… and they are up for this. They are really up for it.
I did not lie about oil and gas company tax
Labour raised some eyebrows when their manifesto, which launched on Thursday, contained a commitment to a ‘windfall tax’ on the profits of the UK’s oil and gas companies. Ridge showed a video of McDonnell speaking at an event on Tuesday where he appeared to explicitly rule this out:
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell insists that he has not been dishonest about a windfall tax on oil companies #Ridge
SR: Can you not see why many people listening to that will feel you’ve said one thing, and a couple of days later, you’ve done completely the opposite?
JM: If you listen carefully enough, he asks me ‘would I give the details of it’ and I said no.
I want ‘a much more equal society’
Ridge asked about McDonnell’s attitude to billionaires and if he was happy to see billionaire status exist under a Labour government. He did not answer the question directly, but sought to downplay the increase that billionaires could expect to see in their tax bills:
"I want to have a more equal society"@SophyRidgeSky asks the Shadow Chancellor if he is happy to see billionaires in the UK #Ridge.
JM: I’d like a more equal society if we could, and I think it’s about making sure that when we create our new economy, it’s a stakeholder economy… where everyone gets the rewards they deserve, but they’re distributed more fairly… They [will be] paying a little bit more.
95 per cent of earners won’t pay more income tax, VAT or NI
Ridge challenged McDonnell on whether Labour’s economic ambitions meant that, one way or another, everybody would end up paying higher taxes. McDonnell said explicitly that three key taxes would not be increased, but was more reluctant to rule out other changes:
SR: Don’t we just have to be a bit more honest… it means all of us paying more in taxes, doesn’t it?…
JM: 95 per cent of earners will not have an increase in their income tax rates or VAT or national insurance. Where there will be other elements of changes in taxation rates, we’ve laid them out.
I will not be neutral in Brexit referendum
Jeremy Corbyn caused a ripple when he told the audience at the BBC’s Question Time leader debates that he would remain neutral in a referendum on Labour’s renegotiated Brexit deal. McDonnell said that this did not mean that he would be following suit:
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell says he would not stay neutral in a referendum on a Labour Brexit deal, but does not say which side he would campaign for #Ridge.
JM: Members of the… government at that time… will be able to campaign on the basis of their judgement… I will wait until I see the details of the deal that we negotiate.
We will not agree to indyref2
McDonnell also said that Labour would not give in to SNP demands for an independence referendum ‘within the first two to three years’ of a Labour government:
John McDonnell says Labour will not agree to a second Scottish independence referendum "in the first two or three years" of a Labour government, even if it were a red line for the SNP #Ridge.
JM: We see the independence issue, in terms of a referendum, as a distraction from [our agenda].
SR: Even if it’s a red line for the SNP… that’s not something that you would give any ground on?
JM: No, we wouldn’t.
Sajid Javid – Tories will release ‘most detailed costings’ ever
Ridge next interviewed the Chancellor himself. The Conservatives have committed to not raising income tax, national insurance or VAT at all, which they are referring to as a ‘triple tax lock’. However, the Conservative manifesto will contain several confirmed spending increases. Ridge asked how the Conservatives would fund these pledges:
Chancellor Sajid Javid promises that the Conservative Party will today release "the most detailed most transparent costings that has ever been published in British electoral history" #Ridge.
SJ: We will set out today alongside out manifesto… a very detailed costings document… It will in fact be the most detailed, most transparent costings that has ever been published in British electoral history, and everybody will be able to see that for themselves.
Debt will be lower by 2024
Javid also promised that debt would fall across the next parliament if the Conservatives are elected, even with their plans to increase government spending. He said that he was confident this was possible because of the strength of the economy:
SJ: We will balance day-to-day spending and we can still afford to borrow – up to a limit – for investment in economic infrastructure… We are still clear that debt will be lower at the end of this Parliament than at the start of this parliament.
Nicola Sturgeon – Johnson and Corbyn ‘the devil and the deep blue sea’
Next, Ridge spoke to Nicola Sturgeon and asked about where she would stand in a future hung parliament, given her known distaste for the two main party leaders. Scotland’s First Minister said that she would have to hold her nose and opt to back Jeremy Corbyn:
NS: Sometimes you have to be prepared to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea. It’s not my choice, but you have to choose where you think you can make the most progress… Better to have the SNP in there keeping [Corbyn] on the right track.
Scottish people must decide on indyref2 – and Corbyn knows it
Sturgeon said she felt that Jeremy Corbyn would relent on his opposition to the timing of a Scottish independence referendum in the event of a hung parliament, despite John McDonnell’s comments that it would not be high on the list of priorities:
NS: I think the reason that Jeremy Corbyn is getting himself into such a mess on this… is actually he knows within himself is that the only democratically defensible position here is to say… it’s not for Westminster to decide these things. It’s for the Scottish people through their democratically elected Scottish parliament.
Scrapping Trident ‘is a red line’
Sturgeon made clear that the dismantling of the UK’s nuclear weapons system was a red line for the SNP in any post-election negotiations:
NS: That’s another matter that we would absolutely be firm about… I have a moral objection to weapons of mass destruction.
I am ‘completely transparent’ over my emails
Sturgeon also rebutted accusations that she had not used her official Scottish government email account on occasion to avoid being subject to freedom of information requests:
NS: There’s been a lot of nonsense talked about this… Any government business I do is subjected to freedom of information legislation regardless of the platform I do it on… There is complete transparency here.
Michael Gove – We will not extend transitional talks
Andrew Marr spoke to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Michael Gove. If the government leaves the EU under the withdrawal agreement on 31 January 2020, a transition period will begin during which the UK will negotiate its future trade deal with the EU. Gove told Marr that he was certain the government would not need to extend the transition period, which is forecast for the end of 2020:
AM: Is there going to be any possibility of an extension?
MG: No.
AM: …If, by the end of the year, you’re not getting what you want, do we leave without a trade deal? Would we go away on WTO rules?
MG: We’ve done a huge amount of work already… which lays the groundwork for the deal that we want… Across Europe, there is an appetite to ensure that we tie up the loose ends and we conclude a relationship based on free trade and friendly cooperation.
We need ‘a conversation’ on social care
In the last general election campaign, Theresa May’s policy on social care was widely seen as putting a severe dent in her popularity up to that point. Gove made clear that he wished to forge a consensus on this difficult issue, which has often been referred to as in ‘crisis’:
AM: If this [social care strategy] is not in your manifesto in detail, that is a huge Conservative political failure.
MG: No, quite the opposite. I think it’s important that we recognise that the political challenge is one for all parties. If you’re dealing with an issue like social care… you need to have a conversation with others.
We are sympathetic to the Waspi women
Marr asked Gove about the government’s approach to the so-called ‘Waspi women’ who will lose out financially as the government increases their state pension age. Labour has since committed to make up for the shortfall, which will cost an estimated £58 billion. Gove defended his party’s position:
#Marr: What is the Conservative offer to "Waspi women"?
MG: We are naturally sympathetic to the position in which they find themselves… We have provided additional funding in order to smooth the transition… [Labour] are spending money which they have promised not to spend.
Angela Rayner – Government ‘stole pensions’ from Waspi women’
However, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner attacked the government over their realignment of the pension ages:
#Marr asks how Labour would fund pledge to compensate "Waspi women" pensioners
AR: The government failed the women who were born in the 1950s. They stole their pension, that agreement that they thought they had, and then accelerated it so that those women didn’t have the chance to prepare for that… This is their money.
Labour’s future Brexit stance ‘a hypothetical’
But Marr had much more trouble getting a straight answer over Labour’s Brexit policy: https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1198533518348828672
#Marr: Will a future Labour government take a position on the #Brexit deal they negotiate?
AM: Would a future Labour government take a position on the deal it has negotiated with Brussels, r not?
AR: Well, that’s a hypothetical.
Angela Rayner – I’m being honest over married couples tax
Rayner also struggled to give a straight answer when challenged over the married couple’s tax allowance, leading to Marr calling her out on her obfuscation:
AM: I’m really sorry, but you are not being honest with the public when you say that only the top five per cent will pay. Everybody taking marriage tax allowance is going to lose that under Labour…
AR:…The net value to families across the country is going to be significant… To suggest that I’m being anything but honest is disingenuous… Anybody who is in that tax bracket under £80,000 will not pay extra.
Jo Swinson – Boris Johnson ‘is heading for a majority’
And finally, with opinion polls giving Boris Johnson’s party double-digit leads over Labour, the Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson has said that she believes that her party is the one best placed to stop the Conservative juggernaut:
JS: As things stand, Boris Johnson is on course to get a majority… There are two and a half weeks to go in this campaign… We need to make sure we win those seats from the Conservatives, and we are in a position to do that in a way that Labour is not.
David Lammy believes Britain should rejoin the EU customs union to boost economic growth. In an interview on Thursday, the Deputy Prime Minister argued that leaving the EU had ‘badly damaged’ Britain’s economy. A reversal of Brexit would be good for business he suggested. It was ‘self-evident’ that other countries had ‘seen growth’ after joining
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