End of day summary
Here’s a roundup of the key developments from the day:
Keir Starmer has unveiled his pledge that families would not “pay a penny more” on energy bills this winter after unveiling a £29bn plan. Under the proposals, Labour would freeze the energy price cap at £1,971 for six months this winter, saving households £1,000.
The government needs to spend another £12bn to maintain the scale of support pledged to help families cope with the cost of living crisis as energy prices continue to soar, according to analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). The economics thinktank said the additional funding would be needed to achieve the £24bn package of aid announced in May, largely because the forecast increase in energy prices over the next year has jumped from 95% to 141%.
The Tory leadership contenders have not produced any “credible proposals” to tackle the energy crisis, Keir Starmer has said. “On the cost-of-living crisis they’re not saying anything meaningful,” he said.
Boris Johnson should intervene urgently to start insulating British homes and introduce fiscal policies to reduce bills, as further delay will mean more people face “extreme suffering” this winter as energy bills soar, a former government chief scientific adviser has warned. David King said: “This could be the worst possible time for the leadership of this country to be simply sitting back. We’re waiting until what? We have an energy crisis right now and we need good leadership.
Brandon Lewis played down suggestions that Boris Johnson has “thrown in the towel” after reports emerged at the weekend that he was on his second holiday in two weeks. The former Northern Ireland secretary told LBC: “Even when you are not in the office in Downing Street you are working.”
Guest speakers at the Cabinet Office will have their social media accounts vetted to check whether they have ever criticised government policy before they can take part in events, according to new rules. Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader, criticised the new rules for providing “a draconian excuse to block critics of government policy from even setting foot in Whitehall buildings”.
Two RAF flights carrying as many as 500 Afghans who worked with British forces and their relatives are landing in the UK each month from Pakistan but there is deep frustration within the Ministry of Defence about others, including those in government, are struggling to accommodate arrivals. It comes as the Taliban and western allies mark the first anniversary of Nato’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Ministers have been accused of neglecting the farming industry and “worrying about votes tomorrow” after it emerged that labour shortages had left crops rotting in the fields. The boss of one global food business said farmers were being “nannied” by the government, taking aim at caps on the number of foreign workers allowed into the country.
Two large removal lorries turned up in Downing Street on Monday, fuelling expectations that Boris Johnson is likely to spend little further time in No 10. The prime minister is entitled to take furniture and fittings that he paid for in his refurbishment of his No 11 flat, theoretically including the Lulu Lytle gold wallpaper that was initially funded by a Tory donor.
Downing Street has admitted that Boris Johnson will not be working on his holiday unless he is needed urgently, after he faced criticism for taking a second break abroad within three weeks amid the energy crisis. Johnson is believed to be in Greece with his family, despite having just three weeks left in the job amid accusations he is leading a “zombie” government.
That’s it for today. Thanks so much for joining me today. We’re closing this liveblog but I’ll be back again tomorrow.
Earlier, Sinn Féin’s Stormont leader, Michelle O’Neill, said she had no confidence that Shailesh Vara intended to call fresh assembly elections if the power-sharing institutions are not restored by the end of October.
She told the Financial Times:
These are people who continually find ways to go around the law.
Responding, Vara said he was sorry that O’Neill took that view of him.
He said:
I have spoken to her on a couple of occasions and I certainly haven’t indicated to her anything about what I would or would not do at the end of October.
Right now there are several weeks before the end of October. My intention is to try and get the assembly up and running.
Be in no doubt, the law is clear, right now as the law stands I will have to call an election at the end of October if we don’t get an executive up and running.
I very much hope that we don’t get to that stage because I know the people of Northern Ireland won’t want an election just before Christmas ... people just want to get on with their lives and they want the politics to be left to one side, and the politicians to do what’s right, and right now what is right is for the politicians to get the executive up and running, and do what they’re supposed to do, and that is serve the people of Northern Ireland.
Updated
The removal company, Bishop’s Move, which provided a vehicle spotted today at Downing Street “provides specialist care and support for people moving into retirement”. (as pointed out by Guardian features writer Sam Wollaston)
It would also seem that Johnson isn’t the first premier moved by the company, which states proudly on its website:
Having moved prime ministers and the archbishop of Canterbury, to mention but a few of our VIPs, we pride ourselves on delivering exemplary service to all our customers, paired with a wealth of knowledge, to make us the leading home removal company.
Like Boris Johnson, they’ve also been kept busy at various times by Brexit
Relocating to Europe has certainly become a little more challenging of late, what with Brexit and the current pandemic travel restrictions, but it's not impossible(!) pic.twitter.com/3eO9Y9HH1d
— Bishop's Move (@BishopsMove_) June 24, 2021
Updated
Downing Street has admitted that Boris Johnson will not be working on his holiday unless he is needed urgently, after he faced criticism for taking a second break abroad within three weeks amid the energy crisis.
Johnson is believed to be in Greece with his family, despite having just three weeks left in the job amid accusations he is leading a “zombie” government.
In his absence, two large removal lorries turned up in Downing Street on Monday, fuelling expectations that he is likely to spend little further time in No 10. The prime minister is entitled to take furniture and fittings that he paid for in his refurbishment of his No 11 flat, theoretically including the Lulu Lytle gold wallpaper that was initially funded by a Tory donor.
Some reaction meanwhile from social media, including the former editor of the Financial Times:
Speaking for myself, now that the Downing Street removal vans have arrived, and never mind he's off to Greece again, I am glad to be taking a long holiday from Boris Johnson
— Lionel Barber (@lionelbarber) August 15, 2022
Asked about the presence of removal vans outside, Boris Johnson's spokesman declines to say whether the Prime Minister and Carrie plan to return to their Downing Street flat at all, after they get back from holiday.
— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) August 15, 2022
Updated
Government accused of neglecting farming industry
Ministers have been accused of neglecting the farming industry and “worrying about votes tomorrow” after it emerged that labour shortages had left crops rotting in the fields.
The boss of one global food business said farmers were being “nannied” by the government, taking aim at caps on the number of foreign workers allowed into the country.
The backlash comes after research by the National Farmers Union (NFU) found that four in 10 growers had suffered crop losses thanks to a lack of pickers.
With worker shortages averaging 14% across the industry, more than £60m in wasted food is thought to have been lost in the first half of 2022.
Although a seasonal workers scheme provides the majority of the sector’s workers, it is due to expire in 2024 and critics claim it is not ambitious enough.
Julian Marks, director of farming business Barfoots, said they had lost asparagus and courgettes earlier this season because at least 70 jobs were unfilled.
He told Times Radio: “The key to us is investing for the long term, so one of our big asks is to actually have some certainty with the seasonal workers programme that goes beyond 2023 and 2024. Also to remove some of the red-tape arbitrary caps on the number of people that come in.”
Updated
Liz Truss has three weeks before she is likely to walk through No 10’s black door as prime minister, facing a difficult in-tray. We’ve taken a look at how senior roles could shape up.
Cabinet ministers
One of the first big outriders for Team Truss, Kwasi Kwarteng, is widely expected to become chancellor, and the pair have a far closer economic ideology than Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak ever had. Thérèse Coffey is Truss’s other dedicated cabinet loyalist and is expected to get a plum promotion, probably to the Cabinet Office.
Other former leadership contenders including Kemi Badenoch, Penny Mordaunt and Suella Braverman are likely to get senior jobs, as well as James Cleverly, Truss’s number two in the Foreign Office, and Simon Clarke, a Boris Johnson ultra-loyalist who is now chief secretary to the Treasury and tipped to become business secretary.
Ben Wallace will be keen to stay at defence, while Brandon Lewis has done hard yards on the broadcast rounds over the summer defending Truss and will expect a promotion. Other newer converts to the cause may get demotions, such as Nadhim Zahawi and Sajid Javid.
New ministers
Tom Tugendhat is likely to be the most prominent Truss backer who will go from the backbenches to a beefy ministerial job, perhaps even in the cabinet.
Roles could also go to European Research Group members who gave Truss the group’s endorsement, including veteran Brexiter names such as Iain Duncan Smith and John Redwood, who have been tipped to get posts. Truss also has a clutch of ambitious 2019 MPs backing her who could get on the payroll, including Dehenna Davison, Mark Jenkinson and Brendan Clarke-Smith.
Summary
Here’s a roundup of the key developments so far today:
Keir Starmer has unveiled his pledge that families would not “pay a penny more” on energy bills this winter after unveiling a £29bn plan. Under the proposals, Labour would freeze the energy price cap at £1,971 for six months this winter, saving households £1,000.
The government needs to spend another £12bn to maintain the scale of support pledged to help families cope with the cost of living crisis as energy prices continue to soar, according to analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). The economics thinktank said the additional funding would be needed to achieve the £24bn package of aid announced in May, largely because the forecast increase in energy prices over the next year has jumped from 95% to 141%.
The Tory leadership contenders have not produced any “credible proposals” to tackle the energy crisis, Keir Starmer has said. “On the cost-of-living crisis they’re not saying anything meaningful,” he said.
Boris Johnson should intervene urgently to start insulating British homes and introduce fiscal policies to reduce bills, as further delay will mean more people face “extreme suffering” this winter as energy bills soar, a former government chief scientific adviser has warned. David King said: “This could be the worst possible time for the leadership of this country to be simply sitting back. We’re waiting until what? We have an energy crisis right now and we need good leadership.
Brandon Lewis played down suggestions that Boris Johnson has “thrown in the towel” after reports emerged at the weekend that he was on his second holiday in two weeks. The former Northern Ireland secretary told LBC: “Even when you are not in the office in Downing Street you are working.”
Guest speakers at the Cabinet Office will have their social media accounts vetted to check whether they have ever criticised government policy before they can take part in events, according to new rules. Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader, criticised the new rules for providing “a draconian excuse to block critics of government policy from even setting foot in Whitehall buildings”.
Divisions within Whitehall over support for Afghan arrivals
Two RAF flights carrying as many as 500 Afghans who worked with British forces and their relatives are landing in the UK each month from Pakistan but there is deep frustration within the Ministry of Defence about others, including those in government, are struggling to accommodate arrivals.
It comes as the Taliban and western allies mark the first anniversary of Nato’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.
About 6,200 people – including some 1,200 “principals” who worked for the UK, and typically four to five members of their families – are currently understood to be eligible for relocation under the Afghan relocations and assistance policy (Arap), one of two government programmes.
Sources at the MoD said on Monday that about 1,050 people who were brought out of Afghanistan under Arap were currently in hotels in Pakistan, awaiting processing and transportation to the UK or another destination.
But there is frustration with other parts of government and beyond with the fact that many Afghans who are brought to the UK end up, as one highly placed source put it, “stuck in hotels”.
Updated
Philip Hammond has described Labour’s energy plan as “a populist response that is untargeted”.
The former Conservative chancellor told BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme:
I think we’ve got to be very careful how we respond to what undoubtedly is a crisis that people are facing through this winter. We don’t know yet whether this is a short-term spike and we will get relief from this as we go into 2023 or whether something more fundamental is happening, which is likely to shift the terms of trade against us and require a much longer-term response.
It’s fine for the government to intervene to support people through a short-term pressure, but the government can’t protect us indefinitely if this is a long-term shift in relative prices, so I don’t support Labour’s proposal because it is a populist response that is untargeted. I’m sure everybody would like to have their energy bills frozen this winter, but not everybody needs that support from the taxpayer in the same way.
Lord Hammond added:
If we allow inflation to take hold and become entrenched as it was in the 1970s with wages and prices chasing each other upwards, we all know how that game ends. It ends with a brutal recession, rising unemployment, a situation that nobody in this country wants to go back and see happen again.
He went on “we shouldn’t be under any doubt that there is no magic money tree, that can make long term increases in energy and food costs just go away, that can’t happen”.
Updated
The shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said the “onus now is on the Conservative party to follow suit” on energy assistance.
She told BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme:
The onus now is on the Conservative party to follow suit and to explain what they would do.
Labour are now very clear that we would freeze gas and electricity bills for all households for six months to take away that huge worry and anxiety that so many people are experiencing right now by expanding that windfall tax that as you know I’ve been banging on about since the beginning of this year and using that money to take money off everybody’s bills.
She added: “This gets us through eight months through that winter period and lets see where we are in April.”
Updated
Labour called on the government to “get a grip” and plan for the future to prevent heatwaves from causing a “crisis situation” with the water supply.
Asked by reporters in Exeter about hosepipe bans put in place across southern England, Keir Starmer said:
We’re a country that has a lot of rain outside of this midsummer period, and if we had a government that planned for the future, we wouldn’t be in a situation where we’re having to impose hosepipe bans.
What has happened in the last few weeks with the heatwave was predictable, but we’ve got a government that even when something is predictable doesn’t plan for the future and puts its head in the sand.
I’d like to see the government actually planning for the future and taking responsibility and getting a grip. I think that means using the regulations we have got and bringing in other regulations if we need them to make sure we’re not repeatedly put in this crisis situation.
Keir Starmer insisted Labour has been considering how to address soaring energy bills for months.
Asked by reporters in Exeter whether his party had left it too late to come up with an energy plan, the Labour leader said:
We started talking about energy prices last September, nearly a year ago, that’s when I said we’ve got to do something and set out what we would do to insulate homes.
So that was a year ago. In January I then said there should be a windfall tax and the government said no and then five months later finally caught up with us.
We also said VAT should be taken off energy bills in January this year and Rishi Sunak is just beginning to say that Labour got that one right as well and now he’s laid out a fully-costed plan.
Updated
Keir Starmer said it was “right” that Labour’s energy plan provides help “across the board” as this would keep down inflation.
The Labour leader told reporters during a visit to Exeter:
Many, many households are now finding it hard to pay their bills so it’s right that it’s across the board.
There does need to be targeted help to those most in need. The pre-payment metres are a complete scandal because they’re being asked to pay even more, so we’ve got an answer to that question.
But there’s an advantage in it being across the board because energy prices are a huge driver of inflation and our plan not only keeps the prices down this winter, but it also takes inflation down by 4% which is an essential measure.
So we are answering the question: ‘What will you do for many households who can’t pay their bills this winter’. And we are saying we won’t allow those prices. But we’re also answering the question: ‘What will you do about inflation?’.
We’re saying this measure will bring inflation down by 4%.
The government is engaged in a “constant pattern” of adopting Labour policies months after rubbishing them, Starmer has suggested.
Asked if he thought the government would “pinch” Labour’s proposals to deal with the rising cost of living once a new prime minister is selected, Starmer told reporters:
What I want to see is action on this that is going to help people in the course of this winter.
When we first came up with the windfall tax idea in January of last year, the government said: ‘No, we’d never do that, it’s wrong in principle.’
For five months they let families struggle and households struggle, then they u-turned and adopted our position. On reducing VAT or eliminating VAT on fuel bills, again, we said that last January. Rishi Sunak then rubbished it until about a week or so ago when he stopped and said: ‘Oh, I do think that’s the right idea’.
So if you look at this, there’s a constant pattern which is Labour putting the practical solutions on the table, the government saying no, they’re not the right ones, and then months later adopting them.
Updated
Tories 'just not good enough' on cost of living crisis, says Starmer
The Tory leadership contenders have not produced any “credible proposals” to tackle the energy crisis, Keir Starmer has said.
Asked by reporters for his opinion on proposals from Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak to tackle the rising cost of living, the Labour leader said:
We haven’t seen any credible proposals from the candidates involved in the leadership race.
Starmer claimed they had instead “engaged in an internal battle”, adding:
Their main argument seems to be that their record in government has been so awful that you ought to vote for one or other of them. It’s very unusual for a government to be trashing its own record whilst it is still in government.
He also said:
On the cost-of-living crisis they’re not saying anything meaningful. We put out a fully-costed, comprehensive plan and that answers the question: what are you going to do for households this autumn when those prices go up?
We haven’t seen anything from the candidates that matches that. Meanwhile, you’ve got Boris Johnson who insisted that he stay in post. We were saying: ‘You should go once you resign.’ He said: ‘No, It’s important to stay in post’.
He last week acknowledged there’s a real problem with energy prices going up and then said almost in the same breath: ‘But I’m not going to do anything about it, that’s for somebody else in the future.’ It’s just not good enough.
Updated
Labour cost of living plan focused on households not businesses for now, says Starmer
Labour’s plans to reduce the costs of rising energy are “primarily aimed” at households for now, rather than businesses, the opposition leader, Keir Starmer, said.
Asked by reporters in Exeter if Labour would provide more help to businesses with energy costs, the Labour leader said:
Well, this is obviously focused on households because the average bills once the price cap changes is going to go from just under £2,000 to £3,500 in October, and then up again to £4,200 in January, but lots and lots of households are just not going to be able to pay. So this answers that question.
Businesses, of course, are impacted as well and where there’s high energy intensity businesses we’ve said there should be up to a billion pounds available to them, and for small businesses we want to change the threshold for rates so that they are impacted less by these prices.
But this is a package primarily aimed at those households who are going to struggling to pay their bills during this winter. It was bad enough last winter going to be unbearable for many of them this winter.
Updated
Keir Starmer said people have welcomed Labour’s “radical” energy plan.
The Labour leader told reporters during a visit to Exeter:
We’ve been talking to people this morning about how they’re going to cope through the winter and they are very, very pleased to hear an announcement that says: we’re not going to let those prices go up, so this is across the board, it’s a radical plan.
The fear is that if the government doesn’t step up, the prices, the average will go up from £2,000 or so to £3,500, then up again to £4,200...
We’re saying we’ll hold that back, we won’t allow those prices to go up and we’ll make sure that those that are actually making a lot of profit out of this pay for holding those prices down.
And that is the sort of plan that I think people are very, very receptive to.
Updated
The prime minister’s official spokesperson said the government expects action from water companies that are not seeking to reduce leaks as the country deals with drought following a long period of dry weather.
Asked whether drought was now a growing priority for the government, he said:
I think the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster has talked about this before and said this is something we do need to be alive to.
Clearly these are not regular events, these sorts of long periods of dry weather or extreme heat. But because of climate change the possibility of seeing them has increased and so as a responsible government you need to adjust long-term planning to that end and that’s what we are doing.
Of water companies, the spokesman said:
Companies that are not taking action to address leaks or invest in infrastructure will see the government step in.
He added that the water services regulation authority Ofwat had set out a 51 billion five-year investment package.
We do know that water companies are investing significant sums into infrastructure. They’re investing £469 to investigate and develop options like new reservoirs, water recycling, water transfer schemes. So we have sufficient water resources across the country. But there should be no doubt that we would expect action for those companies that are not seeking to reduce leaks.
Updated
Starmer: Labour energy plan 'real' answer to soaring prices
Keir Starmer said Labour’s energy plan was a “real” answer to soaring living costs and the “opposite” of what the government was offering.
The Labour leader told reporters during a visit to Exeter:
This plan will take us through this winter and there are so many people who are anxious about what’s going to happen in the autumn, anxious that they can’t pay their bills.
So this is a real answer, a costed answer to them, it’s really the opposite of what you’ve got from the government who are saying absolutely nothing.
He added that other mid and long-term plans were needed such as insulating houses and a “sprint on renewables” such as solar, tidal and wind to make Britain less reliant on the international market.
Updated
Asked if Boris Johnson’s holiday could have waited a few weeks as the country faces a cost-of-living crisis, his official spokesperson said: “I can’t get into the decision around timings but he is on leave this week. He will be back this weekend.”
Pressed on whether two holidays abroad in two weeks fitted with the prime minister’s statement that he would continue business as usual in his final weeks in office, the official said:
You heard from the prime minister last week, government activity continues.
Over recent weeks we’ve made a number of significant announcements and will continue to do so in the coming days.
The spokesman said Johnson was paying for his own holiday but declined to say whether his security was funded by the taxpayer.
Updated
Boris Johnson has no official engagements this week as he is on leave but would be involved if any urgent decisions arise, Downing Street has said.
Asked whether the prime minister has any engagements this week, his official spokesperson said:
The prime minister is on holiday this week.
As is the way with prime ministers as you know by virtue of their role they’ll obviously be kept informed on any urgent issues and make decisions particularly those (related to) national security for example.
He added:
If there were urgent decisions that required the PM’s input he will of course be involved in that. But the deputy prime minister (Dominic Raab) is able to be deputised for meetings should they come up but as far as I’m aware there are no such meetings currently scheduled.
Boris Johnson should intervene urgently to start insulating British homes and introduce fiscal policies to reduce bills, as further delay will mean more people face “extreme suffering” this winter as energy bills soar, a former government chief scientific adviser has warned.
David King said: “This could be the worst possible time for the leadership of this country to be simply sitting back. We’re waiting until what? We have an energy crisis right now and we need good leadership. We need alert leadership, leadership that is thinking about this – and that is missing.”
Johnson, who has vowed to take no major decisions in his remaining time in office, attended a meeting of energy companies last week that had no conclusive outcome, and is now on his second holiday since resigning last month.
King told the Guardian:
He is the prime minister. He wanted to stay on, so he must deliver as prime minister. There is no one else who can do that.
He called for higher taxes on energy companies, which he said were riding soaring energy prices since the Ukraine invasion for a bonanza, rather than investing or becoming more efficient. “They are taking bigger and bigger profits, as the prices are so high. That can only mean that they are tying their profits to the price, not the volume they are delivering,” he said.
Read the full story here:
Updated
With no concrete policies from a caretaker UK government over how to tackle the energy price crisis, the vacuum has been filled with a raft of ideas from prime ministerial hopefuls, opposition parties and others. Here are the main proposals:
Liz Truss
The Conservative leadership frontrunner has focused her attention on tax cuts, pledging to reverse the recent increase in national insurance. The only specific help on energy bills she has proposed is to suspend green levies, which would save the average household about £150 a year. Truss has not ruled out further help, but has repeatedly stressed her preference for tax cuts, although these would disproportionately help higher earners, and do nothing for pensioners or those not in work.
Rishi Sunak
The former chancellor has in part pledged to stand by assistance he unveiled while still in government, and said last week that he would cut VAT on energy bills, at a cost of about £5bn a year, pledging a similar sum again on targeted help for poorer households.
Labour
Under a plan formally unveiled late on Sunday, the party would spend £29bn with a six-month scheme that would freeze energy prices at the current cap, before it goes up in October. This would assist all households, even richer ones, but Keir Starmer has argued it would bring certainty and help to curb inflation, thus helping people with other bills. It would be paid for in part by an expanded windfall tax on energy producers.
Read more here:
As Keir Starmer presents his plans for an energy price freeze, Momentum called on Labour to add the nationalisation of energy to its proposals.
The leftwing campaign organisation said it supported Labour’s energy freeze policy, which it says would save consumers on average £600 on their bills, and has called on the Tories to implement it urgently.
However, it argues that money would be best spent supporting millions of people already struggling to pay their bills, for whom this plan offers little.
It points out that the TUC estimates that nationalising energy would cost £2.85bn, while Labour’s policy would see £29bn spent subsidising energy companies. Polling shows 60% of voters support public ownership of energy,
Hilary Schan, Momentum co-chair, said:
Instead of proposing to shell out tens of billions of pounds subsidising energy companies, Labour should be arguing for public ownership, at a fraction of the price. It’s the common sense solution, backed by most voters, and the best way to keep soaring bills down.
This ideological commitment to privatisation is out of step with all electoral and policy logic. In keeping with his pledges, Starmer must back nationalisation of energy.
Updated
UK chancellor Rishi Sunak told MPs in February that the government’s aim was to make up for half the cost of energy price increases to households.
In May, the government updated the support to be worth £24bn. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) lays out the “five main strands”:
£400 to all households labelled as an “energy discount” that will be subtracted from energy bills.
£150 for all households in council tax bands A-D (around 80% of households).
£650 for any family on means-tested benefits.
£300 for pensioners on means-tested benefits.
£150 for those on a disability benefit.
That meant that the government was covering about three-quarters of the £33bn increase in energy bills that was expected then, in May.
The problem is that costs have continued to surge since then, to the point that bills are expected to more than double from already elevated levels come the winter.
The consultancy Cornwall Insights forecasts that bills could rise to £4,266 in January and £4,426 in April before easing somewhat – but will remain elevated until we see a proper decline in wholesale prices. Given the cap is currently £1,971, it is easy to see how the price of keeping support at the same level starts to stack up.
Conservative former Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis, who is supporting Liz Truss, branded Labour’s energy plan a “poor policy”.
He told Sky News:
I think it’s overarchingly a poor policy because it doesn’t resolve the issues of our economy, it potentially creates bigger inflation and debt problems in the future.
What we do need to do is help people have more money in their pockets to deal with the challenges, set out (a) structured way that we can help people, that’s what an emergency budget will do.
Keir Starmer has outlined Labour’s energy policy that would freeze bills at current rates, offsetting a feared 80% rise by winter. Starmer ruled out nationalising energy companies, a plan proposed by the former prime minister Gordon Brown who suggested the government should consider it as a temporary measure. ‘If you go down the nationalisation route, then money has to be spent on compensating shareholders,’ Starmer told BBC Breakfast this morning.
Guest speakers at the Cabinet Office will have their social media accounts vetted to check whether they have ever criticised government policy before they can take part in events, according to new rules.
The Cabinet Office policy applies to outsiders coming into the department to take part in “learning and development” events. Managers are being urged to carefully check the backgrounds of such guests, including by trawling through up to five years of posts, according to an article in the Financial Times.
The report quoted allies of Cabinet Office minister Jacob Rees-Mogg as saying the due diligence policy, which took effect this week, was “very sensible” and should be implemented straight away, since “there have been far too many examples recently where essentially extremist speakers have been invited to speak to civil servants and staff networks”.
Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader, criticised the new rules for providing “a draconian excuse to block critics of government policy from even setting foot in Whitehall buildings”.
Read the full story here:
Brandon Lewis said Tory leadership candidate Liz Truss was “leading the way” on plans to tackle the energy crisis.
When asked on Times Radio about reports that three-quarters of Tory voters think Labour’s plan is the best way to tackle energy, he replied:
Liz, I think, is the one who has been leading the way.
She was calling for lower tax so people have more money in their pockets to deal with challenges and setting out her plans for emergency budget long before everybody else was starting to talk about the same things.
The former Northern Ireland secretary said that Labour’s plan did not deal with the “underlying issues”.
He said:
The work at the moment that the Treasury are doing, the chancellor and the chief secretary of the Treasury, both of whom are supporting Liz Truss, they are Liz’s team themselves, is looking at what more we can do to directly help people.
We’ve got to do that in a structured way, in a professional way. And that’s what Liz is determined to do. So when we do deliver something we know it can work and we can be clear with people how it works, why it works, and why it makes a beneficial difference to them.
Updated
Asked about the potential length of the energy gap freeze proposed by Labour, Keir Starmer told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme his party would assess the situation in April according to the forecasts.
He added:
It’s all very well having short-term answers which we do need to have, what’s the medium and long-term plan and that’s why just about a year ago, I was making the argument that for the 19m houses that need insulating and are leaking huge amounts of heat and energy, we need a comprehensive plan to have insulation on those.
Questioned over the possible impact of retrospective legislation on business investment, he added:
No, it was in January that we first proposed the windfall tax, so what we’re saying is that’s when the windfall tax should start because that’s what we would have done in government.
Updated
Asked about the IFS’s comments on Labour’s plan, Keir Starmer told BBC Breakfast:
What Paul Johnson (IFS director) isn’t disputing is that our plan will reduce inflation, so he’s absolutely clear that that is the case.
Of course what he’s rightly saying is what happens after April matters because you have to maintain measures to reduce inflation. Of course we have to do that in April when we see the circumstances, but what he’s not suggesting is that we’re wrong when we say that our plan will reduce inflation.
On food price inflation, the Labour leader said:
Well the thing about inflation is we’ve got to get inflation down altogether and that is why our plan is so important because it takes down inflation, but there are other measures that need to be taken on food etc to keep those prices down.
Asked if he and his party should have acted sooner, Starmer said:
I think it was the beginning of July I said to my team, right I want a fully costed, comprehensive plan and I want to see whether it’s possible for us to freeze energy prices but I need a fully costed plan.
We’ve been working on that for six or seven weeks ... I’ve got a very important job as leader of the Labour party, leader of the opposition, but I’ve also got another job that’s really important and that is I’m a dad and I’m not going to apologise for going on holiday with my wife and kids, it’s the first time we’ve had a real holiday for about three years.
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Another £12bn needed to keep UK energy bills support at same level, says IFS
The government needs to spend another £12bn to maintain the scale of support pledged to help families cope with the cost of living crisis as energy prices continue to soar, according to analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).
The economics thinktank said the additional funding would be needed to achieve the £24bn package of aid announced in May, largely because the forecast increase in energy prices over the next year has jumped from 95% to 141%.
This means that working-age benefit claimants are now on course to see their real income fall by £620 over the year.
The IFS says that the government would need to double the current £650 grant to those on benefits to protect them, as well as help low-income pensioners and families in work, at a cost of £5.5bn.
Similarly, the cost of maintaining the £150 council tax rebate and £400 energy discount will now cost the government another £7bn if it wants to continue to cover around half the increase in costs a typical family will be hit by over the year.
Paul Johnson, director of the IFS, said:
As prices of essentials including food, heating and fuel continues to rise, families on low incomes are facing more uncertainty and pressures. The government is still playing catch up as inflation and the cost of energy continue to spiral upwards. Just achieving what they wanted to achieve back in May will cost an additional £12bn, and a package on that scale will still leave many households much worse off.
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Full story: Labour announces plan to freeze energy price cap with reinforced windfall tax
Keir Starmer has put a beefed-up £8bn windfall tax on energy company profits at the heart of a new plan to stop people having to pay “a penny more” on fuel bills this winter.
The Labour leader confirmed that under his plan the energy price cap would be frozen at the current level, meaning that an expected 80% rise in October – taking an average household bill to about £3,600 – would not go ahead.
Starmer said the country was facing “a national emergency” and that Labour “wouldn’t let people pay a penny more” on energy bills as a result of his “fully funded plan”. A typical family would save £1,000, he claimed.
He said: “Britain’s cost of living crisis is getting worse, leaving people scared about how they’ll get through the winter. Labour’s plan to save households £1,000 this winter and invest in sustainable British energy to bring bills down in the long term is a direct response to the national economic emergency that is leaving families fearing for the future.”
Starmer said the plan would cost £29bn over the winter and that it could be funded by extending the scope of the windfall tax on energy companies (raising £8bn), halting the proposed £400 payments for all households offered by the government to compensate for the price cap rise scheduled for October (saving £14bn), and lowering government interest payments on debt (saving £7bn), which Labour said would be possible because its plan would reduce inflation.
Last week Sir Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, and Gordon Brown, the former Labour prime minister, called for the energy price cap to be frozen at its current level and released plans explaining how this could be funded.
This led to criticism that Starmer, who was on holiday at the time, was letting them, rather than the Labour leadership, set the agenda.
Starmer’s plan was released as it was reported that Boris Johnson was on his second foreign holiday of the summer. He was photographed with his wife, Carrie, in a town near Athens. Earlier this month the couple had a break in an eco-hotel in Slovenia.
The energy price cap is now set at £1,971 and it is expected to almost double in October, with a further increase expected in January. Economists and charities have said millions of households will be plunged into poverty as a result, or left unable to pay.
The government has not proposed suspending the energy price cap rise, but it has announced an array of measures intended to help people pay their bills, and Johnson has said he is certain that his successor will offer more help in the autumn.
But neither Liz Truss, the foreign secretary and frontrunner in the contest to replace him, nor Rishi Sunak, her rival and the former chancellor, are calling for the energy price cap to be frozen.
And although both of them have signalled that that they would offer extra cash support to households, neither have proposed a full plan to fund this other than through extra borrowing. Truss maintains that her real priority is cutting the tax burden.
Read more from my colleagues Andrew Sparrow and Phillip Inman here:
Brandon Lewis played down suggestions that Boris Johnson has “thrown in the towel” after reports emerged at the weekend that he was on his second holiday in two weeks.
The former Northern Ireland secretary told LBC: “Even when you are not in the office in Downing Street you are working.”
He added:
He’s probably in about his second week [of] holiday in the last year or so certainly this year. So while somebody is away whether they are secretary of state or let alone the prime minister, they will be continuing to work.
I can assure you he will still be going through inboxes, he will still be dealing with national security issues where relevant. Being out of the country does not mean the prime minister stops working.
Keir Starmer branded Boris Johnson a “lame duck” and the Conservative leadership contest an “internal battle”.
He told BBC Radio 5 Live:
Every family is facing these tax hikes, however well off or not well off they are, everybody is facing it. If you do it across the board and cut off the price rise before it happens, that has an impact on inflation and keeps inflation down and takes it down, now that’s to the benefit of everybody including those who are not so well off.
But whilst we’re cancelling parts of the government’s approach so far, the bit we’re not cancelling is the 650 to pensioners and those on universal credit, so that is targeted support we would keep ... but the 400 would be gone because we’re saying – what the government is saying, well if the price goes up by 2,000 we’ll give you 400 towards it.
Well that’s not going to help those families. We’re saying we’re not going to let the price go up in the first place and so that’s how the 400 is catered for.
He added:
We’ve got to get a grip of it because at the moment what we’ve got is two Tory leadership candidates who are fighting each other in a sort of internal battle, where their main argument seem to be about how awful their record in government has been and a prime minister who’s a lame duck because he’s acknowledged there’s a problem with energy bills, but says ‘I’m not going to do anything about it’.
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Keir Starmer defends Labour’s ‘robust and costed’ energy price plan
Keir Starmer has defended his pledge that families would not “pay a penny more” on energy bills this winter after unveiling a £29bn plan.
Under the proposals, Labour would freeze the energy price cap at £1,971 for six months this winter, saving households £1,000.
It would be funded by extending windfall tax on profits and dropping the £400 energy rebate brought in by the current government.
The energy price cap is now set at £1,971 and it is expected to almost double in October, with a further increase expected in January. Economists and charities have said millions of households will be plunged into poverty as a result, or left unable to pay.
The Labour leader described his proposals to stop energy bills rising over the winter as a “very strong, robust, costed plan”.
He told BBC Radio 5 Live:
Millions of people are already struggling with their bills, we all know that across the country and the hikes that are expected for this October … from a price cap of just under about £2,000 to £3,500 and then £4,200 and millions of people, millions of families are saying ‘I just can’t afford that’.
We have a choice and this is really the political choice of the day. We either allow oil and gas companies to go on making huge profits which is what’s happening at the moment or we do something about it.
We the Labour party have said, we’ll do something about it. We will stop those price rises and we will extend the windfall tax on the profits that the oil and gas companies didn’t expect to make. So we’ve got a very strong, robust, costed plan here which will stop those rises this autumn.
It has an additional benefit which is really important, which is because energy prices are a real driver of inflation, this also makes sure that we can reduce inflation from what might even be 13% down to about 9%.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) questioned Labour’s explanation as to how it would fund the support package.
The think tank’s director Paul Johnson said the party’s plan to cancel the energy price cap rise - if extended from the proposed six months to a year - would cost as much as the Covid furlough scheme.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
Of course what it does achieve is to protect everyone entirely from the increases in energy prices, so if that is what you want to achieve that is what you need to do, but you do need to realise that is a very expensive thing to do.
He added that it would be “true this year” that this would bring down inflation and interest on government debt payments, but warned the average rate of inflation would not change over time assuming it was only a temporary subsidy, “so that’s not a real saving ... in the long run”.
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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