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Sunak and Truss rule out freezing energy prices at leadership hustings
Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss have ruled out freezing energy prices by claiming it would be an expensive, short-term fix that would fail to solve the underlying problem with soaring energy costs.
The Conservative leadership contenders were questioned on whether they would back Labour’s new strategy to fix the domestic energy cap during a leadership hustings in Perth on Tuesday night.
Truss, the favourite to win the contest, won applause when she said the best strategy to combat rising prices would be to lift the green levy on bills, greatly increase the UK’s gas production in the North Sea and to reverse the recent rise in national insurance rates.
Questioned on whether she should heed a poll in the Times showing two thirds of Tory voters backed Labour’s plans, she said: “What I worry about is putting a sticking plaster on this to say we will find the money but be in the same situation in six months’ time.”
The problem will not go away by then, she said, because Vladimir Putin was unlikely to be defeated in Ukraine that soon. “What’s not right is throwing money at the problem without dealing with the root cause,” she added.
Sunak said it was far more prudent to target help at pensioners and those on the lowest incomes. “What I will not do is follow policies that risk increasing inflation – especially if it amounts to borrowing £50bn – and put it on the country’s credit card. That’s not right, it’s not responsible and it’s certainly not Conservative,” he said.
Read the full round-up of tonight’s hustings below.
The Tories like to portray themselves as being on the side of hard-working British people.
It’s safe territory not just among the party membership but also – crucially – key to holding together their fragile post-2019 electoral coalition of the former Labour heartlands and the true blue south.
So it would be a reckless aspiring Tory leader who offers even glancing criticism of the great British worker. But Liz Truss’s extraordinary comments when she was No 2 at the Treasury appear to do just that.
It is no secret that London and the south-east have the highest productivity of any UK region by some way, according to official statistics. But you’d be hard pressed to find any economist who believes this is down to the “mindset” of workers in other parts of the country.
In reality, the plethora of big international businesses in the capital, booming financial and services industries, huge R&D spend and the best transport infrastructure in Britain are the principal reasons.
The fact that too many other parts of the country don’t have these in-built advantages was exactly what the government’s levelling up promises were supposed to address.
Truss is asked if she can be trusted on tax cuts. Unsurprisingly she says: “The answer is yes.”
This leadership race is really going round and round in circles, isn’t it? Anyway, we push on. It’s the final question.
Truss is asked if she will seek to unite the party by inviting Rishi Sunak and some of his supporters to join her cabinet in leading positions.
She says it is important to unite the Tories to beat Nicola Sturgeon and Keir Starmer. She says she will appoint a cabinet from across the party, including Sunak, if she becomes PM.
So, just like that (after two hours), the hustings is over. And if you just can’t wait for more, they’ll be doing it all over again in Northern Ireland on Wednesday.
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A member of the audience asks if Truss would consider reinstating the 0.7% of GDP spent on overseas aid. This receives an incredibly lukewarm applause from the Tories in the room, with a few audibly irritated murmurs thrown in.
She says:
The answer is at present it is not economically affordable. I will see what the position is and … when we can do it, we will do it. We are committed to that under legislation.
She adds that, as foreign secretary, she has ensured money is being spent on humanitarian aid in places such as Ukraine and the Horn of Africa to ensure the money is going to those “who most need it”.
We move on to questions from the Conservative members in the room.
Truss is asked what the pension increase will be, with the man asking the question citing that Sunak backed down from an 8% increase. He asks if she will “just fudge the figures again”?
She says she is fully committed to the triple lock and the highest rate.
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Mackay says the Scottish Tory leader, Douglas Ross, said Boris Johnson misled parliament over Partygate. Does Truss agree?
She replies:
I don’t agree that Boris Johnson misled parliament. He did a great job as prime minister. He delivered Brexit, the election result, the vaccines. He’s the only world leader with a street named after him in Kyiv.
Mackay says Johnson is also the only prime minister to have received a fixed penalty notice for breaking Covid rules, to which Truss says: “I think he was the only prime minister that’s actually been prime minister during Covid”. Things are getting silly now as the crowd continues to bray at Mackay for daring to mention Johnson’s law-breaking.
Truss adds:
He’s leaving the job. What’s done is done.
She adds that she thinks Johnson is “entitled to go on holiday” when asked if the country has been left without a prime minister.
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Truss says she would not allow another Scottish independence referendum, saying it was a “once-in-a-generation” question for the electorate.
Mackay pushes back by saying that, since 2014, there has been Brexit and Covid. “What has Covid got to do with it? That is a nonsense argument,” Truss exclaims, as her supporters boo and heckle the host.
An STV viewer’s question is put to Truss: if she can change her mind on Brexit, why can’t the people of Scotland change their mind on independence?
Truss says:
I respected the democratic will of the people when they voted to leave the EU. I was somebody before the vote took place who was undecided and was worried about the disruption. Disruption didn’t take place and I straight away got on with delivering the opportunities of Brexit, whether it was trade deals or getting things done differently on sanctions.
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Truss is now being asked about the Guardian’s exclusive story this evening that she was heard in leaked audio saying UK workers need “more graft”.
She denies knowledge of the specific quote but says:
What we need in this country is more productivity across the country and we need more economic growth. The thing that we don’t have enough of is capital investment.
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Liz Truss is told by Mackay that three-quarters of Tory supporters back Labour’s plans on energy costs and asked is she is being left behind on the issue.
She immediately says taxes must be cut “because it is important people are able to keep hold of their own money”. She says it would be wrong to take money from people in taxes “and then give it back to them in benefits”. Reversing the national insurance increase and temporary moratorium on the green energy levy would be her first steps, she adds.
An STV viewer has asked how Truss’s tax cuts will help low income families below the tax threshold. “They will help everybody because a growing economy means jobs, more opportunities and more growth,” she says.
The issue of trust is back on the agenda as Sunak is asked what he will do to to rebuild it.
He says he will restore the independent adviser on ministerial standards and ethics, he will be honest with people and won’t sell “false promises” and make sure the government is run “with integrity at the heart”.
Asked if he feels it hasn’t been run with integrity, Sunak says “that is why I resigned from government, yes.”
Sunak is now answering a question about investigating where money from Westminster goes once it is set aside for spending in Scotland. He says:
We found out where it is going, you know where it is going? The welfare budget in Scotland is increasing by 50% over the next five years, right, that is wrong, right, and we have to make that argument. We are the party that believes in people working hard.
That is the end of Sunak’s Q&A and Liz Truss is now making her way back on stage.
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Sunak is asked if he will rethink the government’s plan to send illegal immigrants to Rwanda. The person asking the question describes it as “inhuman, inhumane” (Sunak visibly laughs. Hmm…) and urges him to work with the French to tackle to issue.
He says that “with the greatest of respect, I disagree with you” to a smattering of applause. He adds:
I stand here as a representation of our country’s unbelievable compassion in welcoming people to our shores … we have always done that and we will continue to be that beacon of hope for people around the world but it must be done fairly, it must be done legally and making the Rwanda policy work is an important part of getting a grip of this situation.
He adds that the ECHR definition of asylum is “too broad”.
Mackay now asks if he still thinks he has a chance of winning the Tory leadership election. Sunak says he is out there fighting and is “going to give it everything I’ve got until the last day of this contest”.
Now, we move on to question from the Tory members in the room.
Sunak is asked how he will combat the perception of the Conservative party. He says:
By definition, [swing voters] are not ideological. They’re not naturally Tories, they’re not naturally Labour people. What they want, above anything else, is a government that works … a government that is conducted seriously, competently … and with decency and integrity at the heart of everything that it does. That is the change I’m going to bring and that is how we will appeal to everyone.
An STV viewer question is now being asked of Sunak. Would he be willing to live in social housing on minimum wage for a week to help him relate to the average Brit?
He says:
I know things are difficult right now for many people, the most important thing right now is to help them with their energy bills and I’ve got a plan to do that and particularly focus on the most vulnerable. That’s what I did as chancellor.
Asked if he would ever allow another independence referendum, Sunak it would be “barmy” to focus on a constitutional question when people are worrying about hearing their homes.
He adds that Scottish people want to see the Scottish government working together with the UK government.
Sunak says the cost of living crisis is the “most important issue facing all of us” but says he will not support Labour and ScottishPower’s call for an energy price cap freeze.
He says he would cut VAT off energy bills for everyone and provide extra help for people on low incomes and pensioners. “Through no fault of their own because we are at war with Russia with sanctions … it is right the government support those who need help,” he says.
Sunak reiterates that he rules out a freeze. He says the most important way to support small businesses is tax cuts, such as the employment allowance.
Mackay is now asking Sunak about his comments that NHS spending is “fine”. He asks how much of a pay rise he would give nurses. Sunak says:
I would listen to the review of the independent body.
He refuses to answer if he thinks nurses are worth more than a 5% pay rise and instead says he wants to tackle to issue of missed appointments. “I want to get tough on that,” he says.
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Liz Truss says she is free to say “a woman is a woman”, which receives an extended applause from the members in the audience.
She goes on to say she “gets things done” and “pushes things through”. “I will deliver for Scotland and I will deliver for the United Kingdom,” she says.
Under her leadership, the Tories will defeat the SNP and Labour in a general election in 2024, according to Truss.
She says the union will go “from strength to strength to strength”.
And now the hustings truly gets under way, with Sunak facing questions from Mackay on the cost of living crisis.
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Now Sunak’s leadership rival and the runaway bookies’ favourite Liz Truss is on stage and starts by telling Scottish members that she considers herself “to be a child of the union”.
She says:
We are not just neighbours, we are family and I will never, ever let our family be split up.
Truss goes on to say “the people of Scotland deserve better and want better. What they want is opportunities … in short, they want an aspiration nation and that is what I will seek to deliver as your prime minister.”
She adds:
We need to do things differently. We can’t just have business as usual. I have a plan for growth for all of the United Kingdom.
Now she is reeling off her classics, including getting more trade deals to benefit the salmon and whisky industry, getting EU laws “off the statute books” and reversing the national insurance rise.
Truss did seem to receive a rather more enthusiastic welcome from the audience as she walked on stage, it must be said.
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Sunak says he will end the “devolve and forget” mentality, saying he will call out the SNP on their record on issues such as drug and alcohol abuse.
He swiftly moves on to say – very loudly – that he will take on the “lefty-woke culture that wants to cancel our history, our values and our women”. That receives a rapturous applause from the members in Perth.
He says he has a plan to fix the problem with illegal immigration. Under his plan, the UK “will take back control of our borders”, he claims.
As a side note, Sunak hasn’t stood still since walking out on stage and is continuously moving backwards and forwards.
Rishi Sunak is introduced on stage by one of his supporters Andrew Bowie, the MP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, who says the former chancellor “has already demonstrated through his actions that he has what it takes and, crucially, that he is a unionist”.
Sunak starts by telling the story of his family being welcomed to the UK 60 years ago and “building a better life”. He is reeling off the classics. He delivered prescriptions for his mum, who was a chemist, and also did her books.
He says:
The best way that we transform people’s lives is by ensuring that the birthright of every child is a world-class education. That, my friends, when you look at what has happened here is a lesson that the SNP government would do well to remember.
The former chancellor says “we must restore trust, rebuild the economy and reunite our country”, adding that to restore trust, he tells people the things “they need to hear, not what they want to hear”.
STV’s political editor, Colin Mackay, gets hustings under way
And we’re off.
The chairman of the Scottish Conservatives, Craig Hoy MSP, is welcoming the party’s members to tonight’s hustings and urges them them to get behind the new leader, whoever the winner is, to defeat the SNP and Labour.
The leader of the Scottish Tories, Douglas Ross, is introduced on stage and starts by saying the next leader “must govern for the whole of the UK and work to build support in all nations of the UK”.
He adds:
Fortunately for us, both Liz and Rishi are up to the challenges ahead. They have shown they have the dedication and ambition to take our party forward.
Now STV’s political editor, Colin Mackay, is on stage and I think – I hope, at least – we are about to get the hustings under way.
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Tonight’s Tory leadership hustings are about to get under way in Perth, Scotland.
You can follow along on the live stream above or, alternatively, I’ll be posting updates throughout the event.
At the moment though, both seats on the stage remain empty as we count down to kick-off and Bon Jovi’s It’s My Life is reverberating around the room. The suspense is killing me.
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It seems not everyone is delighted the Conservative leadership hustings is taking place in Scotland tonight.
The Guardian’s Scotland editor, Severin Carrell, has been out and about in Perth, capturing images of some of the protests being held outside the venue.
Among the banners are flags in support of Scottish independence.
Anti-Tory protests in #Perth are swelling - the eggs have flown #ToryLeadership @ScotTories pic.twitter.com/Smq0zT0pXD
— Severin Carrell (@severincarrell) August 16, 2022
A full turn-out of anti-Tory protestors barrack @ScotTories leadership hustings in #Perth - the rain held off, but not the vitriol pic.twitter.com/MhkbPrJAOw
— Severin Carrell (@severincarrell) August 16, 2022
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Looking ahead to tonight’s Tory leadership hustings in Perth, Scotland, and Liz Truss has said she will “fly the flag for the UK not just as prime minister but as mMinister for the Union”.
The front runner to become prime minister on 5 September had been criticised for saying she would “ignore” the Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon.
However, she now appears keen to promote her unionist credentials ahead of the event, which is due to start in just under half an hour.
In a press release issued to the media, she said:
Scotland has gone from strength to strength at the heart of our family of nations, leading the world with great thinkers, makers and innovators. I will never let anyone talk down its potential.
At this juncture, we cannot stick with the status quo which has resulted in sluggish economic growth, the highest tax burden in 70 years and Scotland being the most heavily taxed part of the UK. I stand ready to deliver as prime minister a clear plan in line with Conservative values to get the Scottish economy moving.
This is what clear Conservative leadership can offer: a relentless focus on delivering for the Scottish people and everyone else across our country. That is why I will fly the flag for the UK not just as prime minister but as minister for the union.
I will empower the Scottish parliament with parliamentary privilege to allow for tougher questioning of ministers, sharpening the teeth of MSPs as watchdogs of Nicola Sturgeon’s administration.
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Leaked Truss comments 'grossly offensive', says Labour
The shadow work and pensions secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, said Tory leadership front runner Liz Truss is “peddling offensive nonsense” following the leaked audio of her saying British workers need more “graft”.
He said:
With wages shrinking thanks to Tory failure to bring inflation under control and years of lacklustre growth, it’s grossly offensive for Liz Truss to effectively brand British workers lazy.
I would have hoped she had moved on from the days of her Britannia Unchained fiasco, but it seems that is the blueprint for her prospective government.
Workers across the country are working all hours to keep a roof over their heads, put food on the table and provide for their families.
Liz Truss should be helping working people to cope with this cost of living crises, as Labour this week outlined we would do, not peddling this offensive nonsense.
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Leaked audio reveals Truss said British workers needed ‘more graft’
Liz Truss, now the Tory leadership frontrunner, launched an astonishing broadside against British workers, saying they needed “more graft” and suggesting they lacked the “skill and application” of foreign rivals, the Guardian can reveal.
In a leaked recording, the then No 2 at the Treasury also risked pitting Londoners against the rest of the country by attempting to explain the difference between the capital and other regions in the UK.
Truss, who has put patriotism at the heart of her leadership campaign, suggested the disparity was “partly a mindset or attitude thing”.
The comments were made when Truss was the chief secretary to the Treasury, a post she held until 2019. In the recording she intimated that there seemed little desire to change the working culture so that the UK could become more prosperous.
The highly disparaging remarks echo a controversial passage about British workers being among the “worst idlers in the world”, from the book Britannia Unchained which she co-authored in 2012 when she was a new backbench MP seeking to make her mark as a neo-Thatcherite.
Rishi Sunak has said he would “take on” the Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, rather than ignore her, if he becomes the next prime minister.
Asked in an interview with the BBC if he would ignore the SNP leader, Sunak said:
No, I don’t want to ignore Nicola Sturgeon, I want to take her on and beat her.
I think we can make a very strong case for what the UK government does to help people in Scotland and as chancellor I started that.
Sunak’s comments come after his rival, Liz Truss, claimed she would ignore Sturgeon if she wins the Tory leadership contest, and branded the first minister an “attention seeker”, PA Media reported.
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A Foreign Office official raised concerns about plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, citing state surveillance, arbitrary detention, torture and killings by the country’s government, the high court has heard.
The court has been asked to consider an application by the foreign secretary to keep parts of certain government documents secret for fear the contents could damage international relations and threaten national security.
The government’s application for a public interest immunity (PII) certificate asks to keep 10 short passages confidential.
The Guardian, the BBC and the Times made submissions to the court urging disclosure of these 10 passages, arguing that this was in the public interest. A draft ruling from Lord Justice Lewis into the PII application is expected tomorrow.
We’ll have live coverage of tonight’s Tory leadership hustings from Scotland coming up later on.
However, with the Northern Ireland hustings event due to take place on Wednesday, both candidates have already been challenged to set out their positions on the Northern Ireland protocol.
Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak are due in Belfast later this week and will address party members who will cast their votes this month, with the result set to be announced on 5 September.
Ahead of the event, the Ulster Unionist party leader, Doug Beattie, described the hustings as “an opportune moment for both candidates to set out their stall on exactly how they are going to proceed in the weeks ahead to deal with the protocol”.
He said:
The protocol has only played a small part of the policy discussions so far, but it will be one of the most important issues for an incoming prime minister because its impact is so far reaching in Northern Ireland, and the United Kingdom’s future relations with our neighbours.
Neither can the EU be allowed to prevaricate any longer. Northern Ireland cannot afford to have more months of endless diplomatic whataboutery.
Both the EU and the UK government need to get back to the negotiating table as a matter of urgency. If they don’t then we would expect the UK government to act.
The protocol needs dealt with once and for all because it continues to damage the Belfast agreement and places a border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom.
I’m Tom Ambrose and I’ll be bringing you all the latest politics news throughout this evening, including the Tory leadership hustings in Scotland, which are due to begin at 7pm. Follow me on Twitter @tomambrose89.
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Summary
Here’s a roundup of the key developments from today:
More than two-thirds of Conservative voters say the government should temporarily renationalise energy companies if they cannot offer lower bills. The surge in public support for freezing prices will put pressure on the Conservative candidates ahead of a hustings on Tuesday night. Liz Truss has suggested she favours help for only the most vulnerable households – as well as tax cuts in the autumn.
Senior Scottish Conservatives fear Liz Truss’s “red meat” attacks on Nicola Sturgeon as an attention-seeker will alienate moderate voters, as the leadership hopeful prepares to face Rishi Sunak in Perth. Both candidates will be challenged on the escalating cost of living crisis and soaring energy bills, and the absence of urgent action from the UK government. But a third question is likely to dominate this event: whether Truss was right earlier in the campaign to dismiss Scotland’s first minister by saying she should be “ignored”.
Keir Starmer defended the costs of his plan to freeze energy bills this winter after some economists said it could cost as much as furlough. The Labour leader said during a visit to the Nationwide building society headquarters in Swindon: “Our scheme is fully funded. Our scheme actually depends on a windfall tax on the oil and gas companies to maintain that price freeze.”
Liz Truss has said her priority remains reducing taxes, responding to Labour’s call for an extension of the windfall levy. Speaking in Scotland, the Tory leadership frontrunner said it was wrong to focus on “sticking plasters”.
The real value of UK workers’ pay continued to fall at the fastest rate for 20 years in June as wage increases were outstripped by soaring inflation amid the cost of living crisis. The Office for National Statistics said annual growth in average pay, excluding bonuses, strengthened to 4.7% in the three months to June against a backdrop of low unemployment and high job vacancies.
Two-thirds of the public thinks the government is not doing enough to help with the cost of living, a new poll has found. The survey by Ipsos found that 66% of people think the government is not providing enough help as rising energy bills surge back into the headlines, while only 28% think current measures are about right or too much, PA News reports.
A leading group representing green-minded Conservatives has called for the new prime minister to take urgent action to insulate more homes and scale up the installation of heat pumps to help poorer households with energy bills. The Conservative Environment Network’s intervention marks the latest stage in a fightback by environmental Tories amid signs the race to replace Boris Johnson could lead to green measures being rolled back, and greater weight given to the voices of MPs opposed to such policies.
The government is concerned about how the cost of living crisis will affect people’s health and has taken it into consideration when planning the rollout of flu and Covid booster jabs, a minister said. The public health and vaccines minister, Maggie Throup, said: “I think if people are reassured about their own health, then it helps to take the pressure off some of the other concerns that they may have.”
Labour is planning a campaigning blitz in order to take ownership of its new energy price cap policy in case the next Tory leader bows to pressure and cancels the 80% rise expected in October. Keir Starmer has vowed that his party “wouldn’t let people pay a penny more” on their gas and electricity bills this winter.
Momentum and trade unions are set to force a vote on strikes and pay increases at the Labour conference, with motions designed to contradict Keir Starmer’s stance. The campaign to win support for the motion will be launched this week by the former shadow minister Sam Tarry, who was sacked for joining a picket line and contradicting Labour policy on pay in broadcast interviews.
I’m handing over to my colleague now. Thanks so much for joining me. I’ll back again in the morning.
Momentum and trade unions are set to force a vote on strikes and pay increases at the Labour conference, with motions designed to contradict Keir Starmer’s stance.
The campaign to win support for the motion will be launched this week by the former shadow minister Sam Tarry, who was sacked for joining a picket line and contradicting Labour policy on pay in broadcast interviews.
Momentum will launch its campaign on Thursday with Tarry and fellow Labour MPs Dawn Butler and Jon Trickett, as well as Andrea Egan, the president of the trade union Unison. The motion will echo Tarry’s backing for workers demanding pay increases in line with inflation – the line Labour sources said had contradicted Labour policy.
Tarry said Labour should take the opportunity at conference to show solidarity with striking workers. “Labour has a huge chance to show it’s on the side of working people,” he said.
“But by firing shadow ministers like myself for standing on picket lines, Keir Starmer is in danger of driving a wedge between Labour and the millions of working people desperate for real relief in this escalating cost of living crisis. I am proud of our party’s historic links to the trade unions – it’s time all of our party were.”
Starmer has told his frontbenchers that the party should not join picket lines and instead should focus on calling out the government to end the disputes.
This week, the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, reiterated the party’s position, which has come under fire from its own MPs. Lisa Nandy, the shadow levelling up secretary, caused a rift in the shadow cabinet when she joined striking members of the Communication Workers Union in her constituency.
The stance is likely to come under further pressure this week with another series of transport strikes by the RMT on rail and underground networks.
Read more here:
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Truss’s attacks on Sturgeon likely to dominate Scottish hustings
Senior Scottish Conservatives fear Liz Truss’s “red meat” attacks on Nicola Sturgeon as an attention-seeker will alienate moderate voters, as the leadership hopeful prepares to face Rishi Sunak in Perth.
The lengthy contest to succeed Boris Johnson as the UK Conservative leader and next prime minister enters its final phase on Tuesday evening with the only party hustings in Scotland; the Tories chose Perth, a city once seen as a Tory stronghold.
Both candidates will be challenged on the escalating cost of living crisis and soaring energy bills, and the absence of urgent action from the UK government. But a third question is likely to dominate this event: whether Truss was right earlier in the campaign to dismiss Scotland’s first minister by saying she should be “ignored”.
Senior figures in both camps agree it was a misstep. It suggested Truss, the clear favourite to win, had adopted a “muscular unionism” approach to Sturgeon’s nationalist government. It undermined a subtler strategy devised by Michael Gove to promote the union quietly, by putting UK government money into roads, community projects and infrastructure, sidestepping the devolved Scottish government by working directly with councils.
A Sunak ally said Truss’s remarks, and her disastrous suggestion that public sector pay rates could be cut in northern regions, alienated Tory councillors in his constituency, who had switched support from Truss to the former chancellor.
More seriously, he said, her remarks in Exeter showed a “deep misunderstanding” of the need to persuade moderate unionists and uncommitted yes voters to support the union in a future referendum.
He said:
She’s probably going to win this [so] why did she pander to that extreme position when it’s going to create further difficulties for her down the line? Just say: ‘I need to be a stateswoman’ instead of throwing red meat to the ultras.
Truss supporters in Scotland acknowledge they have advised her to adopt a less belligerent tone against Sturgeon: they insist Truss will follow Gove’s softly-softly strategy.
One ally said:
To me it was just a throwaway line at a hustings for a party audience. I don’t believe we will see a major shift in approach to Scotland. The emphasis will be on raising the profile of the UK government and on direct investment, which I think is very clever politics.
Read more here:
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The foreign secretary, Liz Truss, will continue deploying the Royal Navy to tackle people making crossings of the English Channel in small boats if she becomes the next prime minister.
PA reports:
The Tory leadership frontrunner said she would “absolutely” maintain the military presence following suggestions the scheme introduced by Boris Johnson could end.
Introduced in April as the prime minister came under pressure to stem migrant crossings, the scheme is due to be reviewed in January.
But Truss said the Navy would “absolutely” continue to play a role when asked by reporters in Scotland ahead of the latest hustings in the Tory leadership race.
It came after The Telegraph reported that the navy was planning to end its role in the scheme.
Defence secretary Ben Wallace denied this was a “new announcement”, pointing to a previous government statement saying the naval presence had been agreed until 31 January.
Rachel Hall here taking over from Nicola Slawson – do get in touch with anything we’ve missed by emailing me.
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Summary
Here’s a summary of the key developments of the day so far:
More than two-thirds of Conservative voters say the government should temporarily renationalise energy companies if they cannot offer lower bills. The surge in public support for freezing prices will put pressure on the Conservative candidates ahead of a hustings on Tuesday night. Liz Truss has suggested she favours help for only the most vulnerable households – as well as tax cuts in the autumn.
Keir Starmer defended the costs of his plan to freeze energy bills this winter after some economists said it could cost as much as furlough. The Labour leader said during a visit to the Nationwide building society headquarters in Swindon: “Our scheme is fully funded. Our scheme actually depends on a windfall tax on the oil and gas companies to maintain that price freeze.”
Liz Truss has said her priority remains reducing taxes, responding to Labour’s call for an extension of the windfall levy. Speaking in Scotland, the Tory leadership frontrunner said it was wrong to focus on “sticking plasters”.
The real value of UK workers’ pay continued to fall at the fastest rate for 20 years in June as wage increases were outstripped by soaring inflation amid the cost of living crisis. The Office for National Statistics said annual growth in average pay, excluding bonuses, strengthened to 4.7% in the three months to June against a backdrop of low unemployment and high job vacancies.
Two-thirds of the public thinks the government is not doing enough to help with the cost of living, a new poll has found. The survey by Ipsos found that 66% of people think the government is not providing enough help as rising energy bills surge back into the headlines, while only 28% think current measures are about right or too much, PA News reports.
A leading group representing green-minded Conservatives has called for the new prime minister to take urgent action to insulate more homes and scale up the installation of heat pumps to help poorer households with energy bills. The Conservative Environment Network’s intervention marks the latest stage in a fightback by environmental Tories amid signs the race to replace Boris Johnson could lead to green measures being rolled back, and greater weight given to the voices of MPs opposed to such policies.
The government is concerned about how the cost of living crisis will affect people’s health and has taken it into consideration when planning the rollout of flu and Covid booster jabs, a minister said. The public health and vaccines minister, Maggie Throup, said: “I think if people are reassured about their own health, then it helps to take the pressure off some of the other concerns that they may have.”
Labour is planning a campaigning blitz in order to take ownership of its new energy price cap policy in case the next Tory leader bows to pressure and cancels the 80% rise expected in October. Keir Starmer has vowed that his party “wouldn’t let people pay a penny more” on their gas and electricity bills this winter.
Updated
A leading group representing green-minded Conservatives has called for the new prime minister to take urgent action to insulate more homes and scale up the installation of heat pumps to help poorer households with energy bills.
The Conservative Environment Network (CEN), which has the support of 133 Tory MPs, half the backbench parliamentary party, said its plan could be rolled out in parallel with measures to directly help with this winter’s fuel costs and would help move the UK towards its net zero goals, as well as saving people money.
The CEN’s intervention marks the latest stage in a fightback by environmental Tories amid signs the race to replace Boris Johnson could lead to green measures being rolled back, and greater weight given to the voices of MPs opposed to such policies.
Liz Truss, the clear favourite to become the next prime minister, has criticised the installation of solar farms on formerly agricultural land, and says she supports efforts to extract shale gas by fracking in areas where it has local support.
Her rival in the contest, Rishi Sunak, has pledged to tighten a de facto ban on planning permission for new onshore wind schemes.
The push against green measures has been led by Tory MPs and peers from the Net Zero Scrutiny Group, a relatively new body that argues against many environmental policies on the basis of the cost of living and energy security.
Read the full story here:
Wrong to keep 'sticking plasters' on energy bills crisis, says Truss
Liz Truss has said her priority remains reducing taxes, responding to Labour’s call for an extension of the windfall levy.
Keir Starmer has said his party would freeze the energy price cap at its current level of 1,971 for six months from October, paid for in part by an extension of the windfall levy on the profits of the oil and gas companies.
Speaking in Scotland, the Tory leadership frontrunner said it was wrong to focus on “sticking plasters”.
She said:
We’re still in the leadership contest at the moment. Now, my priority is reducing taxes so people can keep more of their own money at the same time as making sure we boost energy supply.
It is wrong to just keep sticking plasters on this problem. What we actually need to do is make sure we are unleashing more energy, for example, from the North Sea.
We’re investing in technologies like nuclear, and we’re finding more renewable energy as well.
Meanwhile, more than two-thirds of Conservative voters say that the government should temporarily renationalise energy companies if they cannot offer lower bills.
The poll, released by the campaigning organisation 38 Degrees, also shows overwhelming support for Labour’s policy to freeze the price cap this year, keeping it at its current rate of £1,971. The Opinium poll found 86% of the public and 85% of current Conservative voters back keeping the price cap.
The surge in public support for freezing prices will put pressure on the Conservative candidates ahead of a hustings on Tuesday night.
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Two-thirds of the public thinks the government is not doing enough to help with the cost of living, a new poll has found.
The survey by Ipsos found that 66% of people think the government is not providing enough help as rising energy bills surge back into the headlines, while only 28% think current measures are about right or too much, PA News reports.
These figures represent a worsening of the government’s position in the eyes of the public since it last announced measures to help households weather the cost-of-living crisis in late May.
Following that announcement, the proportion of the public saying the government was not doing enough fell from 76% to 49%.
But a deteriorating economic picture now appears to have reversed that trend, as forecasts from the Bank of England suggest inflation will peak higher and later, while energy bills are set to exceed 4,000 next year.
Trinh Tu, managing director of public affairs at Ipsos, said:
As the cost of living continues to rise, it will come as no surprise to see high levels of the public saying the government is not providing enough support.
But, she added, it is “notable” that levels of dissatisfaction with the government are rising even among Conservative voters, 55% of whom now say not enough support is being offered.
Boris Johnson himself admitted this month that current support measures are insufficient, but has ruled out taking further action before his successor as prime minister is announced on 5 September.
The poll of 2,000 British adults was carried out between 9 and 11 August, before Labour announced its policy of freezing energy bills for six months on Monday.
Even so, the survey found the opposition had already started extending its lead over the Conservatives on managing the budget and cutting the cost of living.
The poll found that 44% trusted Labour to manage Britain’s taxes and spending, up from 35% in July and a seven-point lead over the Conservatives.
On cutting the cost of living, 45% trusted Labour while only 30% trusted the Conservatives - more than doubling the gap between the two parties reported in July.
Tu added:
The Labour party are now pulling ahead as the party most trusted to reduce the cost of living and manage Britain’s taxes and public spending, but still only by a minority, highlighting Keir Starmer’s own challenges as he finally sets out Labour’s plans to relieve cost-of-living pressures.
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Keir Starmer was visiting the Nationwide Building Society headquarters in Swindon accompanied by former MP Heidi Alexander, who is the party’s candidate in Swindon South at the next general election.
Both Swindon South and Swindon North returned Labour MPs during the Blair and Brown years but since 2010 have been represented by the Conservatives, PA News reports.
The Labour leader was asked what his party needed to do to win in towns and cities like Swindon if he was to become prime minister.
He said:
I’m here in Swindon, and not for the first time, because it’s very important to me.
I was very concerned about the Honda job losses that took place not so long ago and spoke to many of the employees at the time who were very worried about what will happen to them.
I think that what we offer is rebooting the economy, growing places like Swindon.
There are jobs to be had if you have government backing local schemes to build those jobs, rebuild our public services, and crucially uniting our communities so we can all fight this and face this together.
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Keir Starmer said the biggest cause of division in Scotland was the Conservative party.
The Labour leader said:
The single biggest driver of division in Scotland is the Tory party in Westminster.
I want to hold our UK together, I want to make a positive case for the UK as we go forward.
The problem with the Tories is that they’re part of the problem because so many people of Scotland do not want to be associated with a Tory government back in Westminster.
Conservative leadership hopefuls Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss are visiting Scotland ahead of a members’ hustings in Perth on Tuesday night.
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Keir Starmer disagreed with the assumption that only the poorest will be struggling with the rising cost of living and said his universal plan would also reduce inflation.
The Labour leader:
I think that this assumption that most people can afford these massive hikes in their energy bills is completely wrong.
I think the government in making that argument is completely out of touch.
Here at the Nationwide in Swindon the staff have been telling me about the number of people coming through the door from all sorts of backgrounds who are really worried.
I’m not surprised because an average energy price hike from £2,000 to £3,500 or £4,200 is huge.
I challenge the assumption that it’s only those who are particularly hard-up that are going to struggle this winter.
I think many, many people are going to struggle this winter and that’s why it’s very important we have a scheme that is universal.
The other advantage of our scheme is that it drives inflation down by 4% and so it answers the question of what would you do about energy prices this winter but also how will you drive down inflation.
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Labour: we must freeze energy prices
Ed Miliband, the former Labour leader, has written for the Guardian about the cost of living crisis. He writes that while the Conservatives support oil and gas giants, the current crisis could drag half of UK households into fuel poverty.
The cost of living emergency facing the British people is not an inevitable, unalterable fact of life. We are told so often by government ministers that the pain and anguish the British people are facing is something we have to get used to, and all we can do is tinker round the edges. This energy bill crisis will devastate millions of families and could force more than half of British households into fuel poverty. Unlike the Conservatives, Labour is not willing to stand by and allow that social catastrophe to happen. This is why Labour has proposed to freeze energy prices.
It’s important we understand the deeper lessons this moment teaches us. First, while some of the causes of this cost of living crisis are driven by global factors, its effects – who suffers, who pays and who government protects – are not predetermined. It is a deeply political decision: the Conservatives have opted to let families and businesses pay unsustainably high energy bills while oil and gas companies enjoy huge and unexpected profits.
The second lesson is that affordable energy should be a right for people across our society, and government must ensure that right. Whether a service is provided publicly or privately, there are duties of government that cannot be ducked. David Cameron accused me of “living in a Marxist universe” when I proposed applying a cap to energy bills as Labour leader. He was dead wrong. Markets need rules to prevent exploitation. Governments must be willing to intervene when there is a profound risk to people’s economic security. Beyond this crisis, we need to bring fundamental reform to our failing energy system, which is currently delivering neither affordability nor security for our country.
Third, we must draw the right long-term conclusions about energy policy. This is not, as some would claim, the first net-zero crisis. It is just the latest fossil-fuel crisis. Our job should be to ensure that it is the last. The undeniable truth is that while we remain dependent on fossil fuels, we are vulnerable to the geopolitics of energy. Petrostates, dictators and politicians such as Vladimir Putin are using energy as a weapon of war. Gas prices currently stand at four times the price of the cheapest renewables.
There is only one reliable, sustainable long-term path out of this crisis. That is to get on, now, with the clean energy sprint Labour has been calling for month after month. We should be investing in homegrown onshore wind energy, offshore wind, solar, hydrogen and nuclear energy as well as a national mission to insulate homes.
The fourth lesson goes well beyond energy policy. It’s important to recognise that the energy insecurity millions of people face is a consequence of their financial insecurity and our economic insecurity. We live in a country where 80% of people have savings of less than £500. Twelve years of low growth under the Conservatives have left people, on average, much worse off.
Read the full opinion piece here:
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Keir Starmer defended the costs of his plan to freeze energy bills this winter after some economists said it could cost as much as furlough.
The Labour leader said during a visit to the Nationwide building society headquarters in Swindon:
Our scheme is fully funded.
Our scheme actually depends on a windfall tax on the oil and gas companies to maintain that price freeze.
We basically have got a choice. We either allow the oil and gas companies to continue to make huge profits while millions of households are really struggling or we do something about it.
Our scheme is fully funded and it’s fully funded partly by this windfall tax on the oil and gas companies making excess profits.
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During a visit to the Nationwide building society headquarters in Swindon, Keir Starmer was asked what action he would take now to deal with the current cost-of-living crisis, rather than focusing on expected rising bills in the winter, PA Media reports.
Labour leader said:
That’s why we support tailored schemes like the £650 to those on universal credit and into pensions.
But what you’ve got from Labour is a fully costed plan to deal with the increases that are likely to come in the autumn and early next year.
Contrast that with the zombie government who are producing absolutely no plan and no answers to what they’re going to do about the energy increase in October and then again in January.
I can tell you millions of people are really worried about what’s going to happen this autumn and this winter. They’re hearing absolutely nothing from this government.
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The government has said it is “confident” that people will be able to get a new bivalent Covid-19 jab as part of the autumn booster programme.
The UK became the first country in the world to approve Moderna’s bivalent vaccine, which targets both the original strain of the virus and the Omicron variant, but it emerged that the country does not have enough doses to offer the new jab to all people eligible for the booster.
About 26 million people will be invited to come forward for a booster jab in the autumn but it is understood only 13m of the new bivalent Moderna jabs are available.
The vaccines minister, Maggie Throup, told Good Morning Britain:
Obviously we’re getting stocks in other new vaccines ... and we’re getting further stocks as we go through the next few weeks, but there are other vaccines coming online as well.
So we are quite confident that we’ll be able to deliver the programme with a bivalent vaccine throughout the next few weeks.
But Prof Anthony Harnden, the deputy chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), said people eligible for a Covid-19 booster jab should not worry about what type of vaccine they will receive.
He told BBC Breakfast:
The key point is that people need to get vaccinated rather than worrying too much about the type of vaccine that they’re receiving.
These are all very good vaccines, which have proven efficacy against severe disease – that’s hospitalisation and death.
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Labour is planning a campaigning blitz in order to take ownership of its new energy price cap policy in case the next Tory leader bows to pressure and cancels the 80% rise expected in October.
Keir Starmer has vowed that his party “wouldn’t let people pay a penny more” on their gas and electricity bills this winter, proposing freezing the price cap at current levels and preventing the average household bill from reaching £3,600.
Senior sources said the party had limited time to get out its message before the next Tory leader, presumed to be Liz Truss, enters No 10. The new prime minister will need to produce a comprehensive package on the cost of living, despite Truss’s reticence to spell out how she would help beyond tax cuts.
Labour will increase efforts to promote its policy in the coming days, including with digital adverts, campaign tools for local parties and with direct mail for MPs to use. Plans for the summer offensive have been in the works since mid-July.
Over the coming weeks, the party will set out more on its energy policy offer, including plans to upgrade 19m homes to make them more energy efficient, double onshore and offshore wind capacity and triple solar power.
Starmer has said Labour’s plan, funded in part by an expanded windfall tax, is the radical approach needed to help households and reduce inflation, contrasting it with the inaction of a “lame duck” government.
“We asked ourselves: do we want a plan that allows those prices to go up, causes that anxiety, and then rebates some people after the event, but doesn’t do anything about inflation, or do we want to be more radical, more bold, more ambitious?” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“One of the benefits of our proposal is that it brings inflation down, which benefits everybody, but particularly those who are most vulnerable, and those who are least well off.”
Sources close to Starmer say plans for the party conference will need to be adapted on the basis of what the new prime minister announces in the first weeks in office, especially if there is an early emergency budget.
Read more from my colleagues Jessica Elgot and Peter Walker here:
The real value of UK workers’ pay continued to fall at the fastest rate for 20 years in June as wage increases were outstripped by soaring inflation amid the cost of living crisis.
The Office for National Statistics said annual growth in average pay, excluding bonuses, strengthened to 4.7% in the three months to June against a backdrop of low unemployment and high job vacancies.
However, the real value of workers’ pay packets dropped by 3% – the fastest decline since comparable records began in 2001 – after taking account of its preferred measure of inflation.
Growth in average earnings including bonuses was 5.1%, although also failed to keep pace with the soaring cost of living.
The latest snapshot showed early signs of a slowdown in hiring demand among employers despite job vacancies remaining close to a record high. The ONS said unemployment rose slightly to 3.8% in the three months to June, while the number of new job openings fell for the first time since summer 2020.
Growth in employment slowed to 160,000 in the three months to June, well below analysts’ forecasts, suggesting the jobs market is beginning to cool as Britain’s economic performance falters.
Ruth Gregory, a senior UK economist at the consultancy Capital Economics, said: “June’s labour market figures revealed further evidence that the weaker economy is leading to a slightly less tight labour market.”
The chancellor, Nadhim Zahawi, said the latest figures showed Britain’s jobs market was in a strong position, with unemployment lower than at almost any point in the past 40 years. “[That is] good news in what I know are difficult times for people,” he said.
“Although there are no easy solutions to the cost of living pressures people are facing, we are providing help where we can. We are delivering a £37bn package of help for households through cash grants and tax cuts so people can keep more of what they earn.”
However, the figures underlining the unprecedented hit for workers’ pay are likely to add to the pressure on the government and Conservative leadership candidates amid the cost of living crisis.
Labour said the figures showed the Tories had lost control of the economy. Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said: “This zombie government is offering no solutions to the cost of living crisis.”
Read the full story here:
People haven’t seen the full extent of what the government is doing to help with the cost of living crisis, Maggie Throup has said, amid increasing criticism and accusations that Boris Johnson is a “lame-duck” prime minister.
The public health minister told ITV’s Good Morning Britain:
We’ve already put together a 37 billion [package] that is being rolled out and there’s lots of different aspects of that: helping pensioners; helping those on low pay; helping people generally, and people haven’t seen the full extent of that.
Asked about whether Rishi Sunak should have a clear policy on how to deal with the crisis, she said:
I think it’s quite right that we wait until we know who is our new leader – prime minister – and then they will take on a lot of advice about the legacy situation.
Only last week the prime minister’s assistant secretary and the chancellor met with energy companies and they started talking, and also the civil service [has] put together different options to put in front of whoever it is in September, to make sure that very quickly we know exactly how people are going to be helped.
Asked whether Sunak should stand down from the leadership race, Throup replied:
I think it is quite right that we wait for the outcome of the election, we haven’t got long to go. And I don’t think any candidate should stand down because until we know the actual results on the day, everything’s to play for.
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The government is concerned about how the cost of living crisis will affect people’s health and has taken it into consideration when planning the rollout of flu and Covid booster jabs, a minister said.
The public health and vaccines minister, Maggie Throup, was speaking on LBC radio about the new dual-variant Covid vaccine that has been approved for use in the UK’s booster programme.
She was asked about the impact the cost-of-living crisis will have on health and whether the government had taken it into consideration.
LBC’s Nick Ferrari said: “A lot of people saying they’re so concerned about energy prices, they won’t be able to turn the gas up and it is feared more people will die than is usual.”
Throup responded:
Well, that is a concern, it’s something that we’ve taken into consideration when we looked at our vaccination programmes.
We are rolling out the Covid jab, we’re also rolling out the flu jab, providing as much protection as we can to those who are most vulnerable, and where possible will be co-administrating the flu and the Covid jab so people can have both jabs at one go.
And I think if people are reassured about their own health, then it helps to take the pressure off some of the other concerns that they may have.
And yes, you’re right, people who perhaps don’t heat their homes as much will be more vulnerable. And that’s why, as I say, we’re putting that ring of protection around the most vulnerable with our vaccine programme.
Welcome to today’s politics liveblog. I’ll be covering for Andrew Sparrow today. Do drop me a line if you have any questions or think I’ve missed anything. My email is nicola.slawson@theguardian.com and I’m @Nicola_Slawson on Twitter.
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