Summary of the day …
Keir Starmer’s government held a “political” cabinet meeting without civil servants as chancellor Rachel Reeves prepares to deliver tomorrow’s budget, the first Labour budget for well over a decade
There were snippy exchanges in the Commons as Labour ministers were criticised over the pre-briefing of elements of tomorrow’s budget. Shadow Treasury minister Laura Trott said that the current government’s handling of criticism by speaker Lindsay Hoyle resembles “the worst bits of our record”. Reeves told Tory MP Desmond Swayne “It’s good to be explained how to do my job by one of the members opposite who crashed our economy”. Commons speaker Lindsay Hoyle administered another rebuke to the Labour front bench
Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick have been making their pitches in the last week of the drawn-out Conservative leadership contest. Badenoch said Nigel Farage and the Reform UK were a symptom of the party’s problems, not the cause. Both Jenrick and Badenoch described the contest as “neck and neck”
Jeremy Hunt has called on the cabinet secretary, Simon Case, to prevent the release of a review by the Office for Budget Responsibility into his spending plans, which is scheduled to be released on the day of the budget. Reeves said the outburst showed the Tories has failed to heed the lesson of the Liz Truss era
Health secretary Wes Streeting said it would take more than one budget cycle to “fix” the NHS
The SNP was excluded from getting an automatic seat on the Scottish Affairs committee in Westminster
Andy Burnam, mayor of Greater Manchester, has said the region’s bus network will retain a £2 single fare cap
Burnham: Greater Manchester will retain a £2 bus fare cap throughout 2025
Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, has just posted to social media to say he can confirm that buses in his region will retain a £2 single fare cap through the whole of 2025.
I can confirm that we plan to stick with a £2 cap on single bus fares for the whole of 2025.
— Andy Burnham (@AndyBurnhamGM) October 29, 2024
More detail here.👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/NXgGoNPRKp
More details soon …
Badenoch: Nigel Farage and Reform 'not the cause of Tory problems, but a symptom'
Both Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick have taken advantage of the pre-budget news lull to really try and hammer home their messages in the last few days of campainging for the Conservative leadership.
Badenoch this afternoon has published a piece in the Spectator, called “My plan to win back power for the Tories”
In it, she says the rise of the vote share for Reform UK in July was not because Nigel Farage was “the cause of our problems, but [he was] a symptom.”
The former business secretary says that on the campaign trail she had met three types of party members:
The first want to refight the last election, but with different policies. The second worry about the party’s ability to survive, let alone fight the next election. The third are there for the show – and the selfies.
She says that while in government:
Instead of listening to voters, the Conservatives churned out a laundry-list of promises with no idea how to keep them. Simply announcing policies and hoping that, magically, things would happen isn’t politics. It’s witchcraft – and voters notice.
In a slightly more personal passage she says:
Many of my team are in their twenties and thirties and I listen to them talk as they drive me around from county to county. They often think I’m sleeping, but I’m taking in what life is like for them.
There’s the usual politics gossip, of course, but also talk of families, home purchases and the endless abuse they get for being Conservatives.
It wasn’t like this for me 20 years ago.
We have let these young people down and I promise them silently that I will fix things.
Badenoch’s campaigning style isn’t renowned for its deployment of humour, but, at one point she writes “A few endorsements raise an eyebrow. I’m being asked if my campaign can survive the benediction of George Osborne.”
She goes on to say though that “There’s a reason why so many of my endorsements are from those who have been through opposition before: they know how hard the journey will be.”
Badenoch also addresses criticism of her campaign style – and failure to set out detailed policies. Earlier today Robert Jenrick said the party needed to regain the public’s trust with “substance, and not a plan tomorrow, but a plan today.”
By contrast Badenoch says:
I hear some say that I will lose this campaign because I’m not throwing a bone to this or that section of the party, or offering a quasi-manifesto at this early stage. So be it. If I lose, it will be knowing that I did not choose the easy way. If I win, I will have done so on my terms. No offering jobs, no easy promises that I know we can’t deliver. Is this the surest campaign strategy? Perhaps not.
It is behind the Spectator paywall, but you can find it here.
SNP fail to get automatic seat on Scottish Affairs committee, while Treasury committee only has MPs from England
Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor
The Scottish National party has complained about its Westminster group being downgraded by the Commons’ system for choosing who sits on its powerful committees, after it was refused an automatic place on the Scottish affairs select committee.
On Tuesday the Commons said ten seats have been automatically allocated to Scottish Affairs, but none to the SNP. The eleventh seat is listed as vacant until it confirms at a later date it will go to Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s Westminster leader.
This highlights the crude system the Commons uses for allocating committee seats based on the numerical strength of each party at UK level, even for committees with a geographical remit or those with a significant impact on devolved nations.
The SNP had a very difficult general election, losing 37 seats and reducing it to just nine MPs. That meant Jack Rankin, the Conservative MP for Windsor, who has never lived in Scotland, had a guaranteed seat on Scottish affairs even though the SNP did not.
The SNP remains Scotland’s second largest party at Westminster, with 16% of Scotland’s 57 seats, whereas the Tories, which has two seats on the committee, won five Scottish seats – coming fourth in Scotland behind the Liberal Democrats.
The new Treasury select committee, which has a UK-wide remit but also has the most prestige attached, has no MPs from Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. It has only one MP from north of the Midlands, the Labour MP for Darlington, Lola McEvoy.
Graham Leadbitter, the SNP MP for Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey, said this created a “damaging democratic deficit.
“The Treasury has huge reserved powers that impact on the lives of people in Scotland every day, including critical choices over taxation, investment and public spending, but there isn’t a single Scottish MP on it to hold the UK government to account.
“Until Scotland gets the full and normal powers of independence the least we should expect is fair representation on public committees discussing Scotland’s interests.”
The Treasury has also issued a photograph of chancellor Rachel Reeves preparing the budget. The portrait is by Kirsty O’Connor.
My colleague Jessica Elgot informs me that the picture behind Reeves is of Ellen Wilkinson, who was minister of education in the 1945 Clement Attlee government, and the second ever woman to hold a cabinet position in the UK.
Presumably Lindsay Hoyle won’t be vexed that the Treasury have issued a picture of what the budget looks like – at least in physical form anyway.
A Budget to fix the foundations of our economy and deliver change.
— HM Treasury (@hmtreasury) October 29, 2024
Watch live across our channels on 30 October. pic.twitter.com/RNUXJqeg89
Rachel Reeves has suggested the Conservative party risks years in opposition as she claimed Jeremy Hunt’s attacks on the Office of Budget Responsibility suggest the party does not seem to have learnt the lesson of the Liz Truss era.
Responding to Hunt saying “We all know why she’s inventing this fictitious black hole,” the chancellor said:
I think it is important we don’t deny the seriousness of the situation that we face with the black hole in the public finances. Combined with lashing out at independent economic institutions, [it] suggests that he’s got more in common with Liz Truss or Kwasi Kwarteng than perhaps we thought.
In a dig not just at the Tories, but also at the years in which Jeremy Corbyn was Labour leader, Reeves continued:
I watched my party lurch towards an ideological extreme and deny reality, and, as a result, we spent years in opposition. The shadow chancellor risks taking his party down the same path.
With the Conservative leadership contest reaching a conclusion on Saturday, both shadow work and pensions secretary Mel Stride and former party chair Richard Holden have appealed for unity.
PA Media report that Stride told them he would like to see “the party coming together,” adding:
I have no doubt that I and my colleagues will be rallying around whoever is the winner of that contest so that we can get our policy platform together, get out there … and work our way back into political contention and get this disastrous government out, and win the next general election.
Speaking after Conservative MPs had gathered to appeal to the government to change its winter fuels payment policy, Holden told PA that whoever wins he hopes to see the party “rallying around the new leader.”
The last weeks of the contest have been marked by some intensive digs between the Jenrick and Badenoch campaigns. Jenrick earlier today said on BBC Radio 2 “I hope not, that’s not my way” when asked if the contest had turned into a “slanging match”.
Badenoch, in a testy interview with Times Radio, said she didn’t want to talk about Jenrick’s campaign, but also declined to categorically deny she believed there was a “whiff of impropriety” about him.
The contest began at the end of July and will have run for 14 weeks by the time it concludes. Expressing what might be a minority view, Stride told PA “Personally I don’t think it’s been a bad thing that it’s been a long contest, because I think it allowed everybody a real opportunity to set out their stall.”
It isn’t just the first Labour government budget for well over a decade tomorrow, it is the first time the Conservative party has had to wrestle with how to get its message across in opposition to a budget for a long time.
If Labour haven’t got their comms perfect – and they clearly haven’t – there has also been some mixed messaging today from the Tories.
In a social media post earlier the party said “Labour got into power and immediately decided to hit: workers, pensioners, bus users. That’s change … for the worse.”
Labour got into power and immediately decided to hit:
— Conservatives (@Conservatives) October 29, 2024
- Workers
- Pensioners
- Bus users
That’s change…for the worse.
However shadow work and pensions secretary Mel Stride has also today criticised what he described as “inflation-busting pay rises” awarded in the public sector by Labour, and said “pressure” would be exerted on businesses amid reports that the government intends to raise the national minimum wage, suggesting that the party is complaining about workers being “hit” by government policies, but also against policies that deliver higher wages for workers.
Here is the scene in Westminster as Tory MPs, led by Mel Stride, posed for the cameras before delivering a petition calling for the Labour government to rethink its approach to winter fuel payments.
Jessica Elgot reports for the Guardian on former chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s continued efforts to prevent the release of a review by the Office for Budget Responsibility into his spending plans, which is scheduled to be released on the day of the budget.
There were some very snippy exchanges in the Commons earlier as the government defended the way it has briefed information about the budget.
After Conservative MP for Harwich and North Essex Bernard Jenkin questioned whether the chancellor may have broken the ministerial code, paymaster general Nick Thomas-Symonds told the house:
The chief secretary to the Treasury made a statement to the house yesterday, the entire Treasury team have been here answering questions today, the chancellor will deliver a budget tomorrow, we will have four days of debate. I doubt the house has seen so much of the Treasury team since the Tories were forced to deliver two emergency budgets in September 2022.
Updated
Green party of England and Wales MP Ellie Chowns has posted a video to announce that she will be following Caroline Lucas in having a seat on the Environmental Audit Committee at parliament.
I'm delighted to announce that I have been appointed to the Environmental Audit Committee, following in the footsteps of @CarolineLucas who served on the committee for many years💚
— Ellie Chowns (@EllieChowns) October 29, 2024
It's really important work and I'm excited to get started at our first meeting this afternoon! pic.twitter.com/rK3kutZtVh
Updated
Shadow Treasury minister Laura Trott has said that the current government’s handling of criticism of it by speaker Lindsay Hoyle resembles “the worst bits of our record.”
After the speaker again criticised the pre-briefing of budget details via the media rather than in parliament, Trott said:
The response from Number 10 yesterday seemed to be that their whole argument is, “Well, we did it because you guys did it.”
I’m old enough to remember a fresh-faced prime minister coming into Downing Street promising change. Justifying their actions based on things that we’ve done doesn’t really seem like the change that we were promised now, does it?
We’re learning the lessons of why we lost the election, but this government seems to be taking lessons from the worst bits of our record, and not just ours, but the last Labour government too. It’s like the greatest hits of government mistakes being replayed in just 100 days.
Downing Street has argued that it is entirely routine to reveal some details of the budget in advance.
The Commons is now hearing an urgent question on the crisis in Sudan.
Plaid Cymru has also been campaigning today to try to shift the government position on winter fuel payments.
They have been collecting signatures for their own petition against the move, posting to social media say:
No one should ever have to choose between heating and eating, but this is the cruel decision that many pensioners in Wales will have to make this winter. Labour must reverse their callous cuts to winter fuel payments!
😣 No one should ever have to choose between heating and eating, but this is the cruel decision that many pensioners in Wales will have to make this winter.
— Plaid Cymru 🏴 (@Plaid_Cymru) October 29, 2024
Labour must reverse their callous cuts to Winter Fuel Payments!
Agree? Sign Plaid Cymru's petition today 👉… https://t.co/GmeHYpW9FE
Earlier today Conservative MPs presented a petition criticising the Labour decision on the payments.
Commons speaker Lindsay Hoyle has issued another rebuke to the government for pre-announcing measures from tomorrow’s budget.
He told MPs:
I’ve noted media reports on the assertion from Downing Street that the pre-announcement of budget measures is entirely routine.
For avoidance of doubt, I’m always happy for ministers to come to the House in the run-up to the budget to make announcements. This discourtesy arises when those announcements are made elsewhere.
Earlier Keir Starmer’s Downing Street spokesperson had said:
It is entirely routine for the chancellor and indeed the government to explain the context of fiscal events in advance to ensure that the public understand the context, to ensure that the budget lands in the right context.
We are, of course, committed to ensuring that we work with parliament to ensure measures are also announced to parliament in the usual way.
Because Robert Jenrick was being interviewed by Tina Daheley on BBC Radio 2 sitting in for Jeremy Vine, the interview finished with a quickfire short format question round, of the type designed to tease out aspects of a politician’s character.
The key things to emerge were that Jenrick sidestepped endorsing Donald Trump for US president when asked “Trump or Kamala”, by saying “I’m a conservative. I tend to lean towards Republican candidates. But obviously I’d like to work with whoever is president of the US.”
He prefers real ale over Rioja, the Rolling Stones over the Beatles, and said “I’m basically a 90s guy” when offered a choice of 80s floor fillers or 90s dance.
In among the quickfire questions were a couple of more political ones. He said defence secretary John Healey was the Labour MP he most admires, saying “he’s a very good and decent man. I’m pleased to see him in that position.”
Asked what he feared most about tomorrow’s budget, he said “Tax rises on working people. I think it’s going to be very tough on people on low incomes and pensioners.”
The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has been very combative during Treasury questions in the Commons today. Criticised by Tory former minister Desmond Swayne, who accused her of creating a collapse in business confidence, she told him: “It’s good to be explained how to do my job by one of the members opposite who crashed our economy.”
Updated
Speaking on BBC Radio 2, Robert Jenrick, who was in government from January 2018 to December 2023, has said “I think there’s a lot of pressure on housing right now across the country. It’s very hard to get a doctor or a dentist.”
He placed the blame for this firmly on immigration. He continued:
I think the number of people coming into our country – these are good people, this is not a criticism of those coming in – but I think it is suppressing the wages of British workers in a lot of industries, like the businesses I know in my constituency, people working in agriculture, in distribution centres, in food processing factories.
Earlier today Jenrick’s colleague Mel Stride criticised reports of Labour intending to raise the national minimum wage in tomorrow’s budget, saying it would put “pressure” on businesses.
Jenrick said “I think that we have been reaching for the easy lever of labour coming into this country, rather than investing in our own people. I want us to be skilling up British people by investing in good quality apprenticeships.”
Jenrick also spoke about having concerns on community cohesion, saying:
I think in some parts of our country, we’re also seeing that the ties that bind us together are starting to fray, because it’s just very hard to successfully integrate 1.2 million people every year.
According to the House of Commons library, under Rishi Sunak’s goverment which Jenrick served in, 1.2 million people migrated into the UK in 2023, and 532,000 people emigrated from it, leaving a net migration figure of 685,000.
Appearing on BBC Radio 2, Conservative leadership candidate Robert Jenrick has said his contest with Kemi Badenoch is “neck and neck”, and conceded that “the public are deeply sceptical about my party right now.”
Badenoch also claimed earlier the contest was tight.
He said his upbringing in the Midlands “forged” his conservative values. He said “how do we ensure that we listen to the silent majority in this country, who I feel are too often ignored by politicians down here in Westminster?”
Jenrick said:
People know that they can trust me to do the right thing, to stand up for conservative principles, and also just to get things done. I want to achieve things in politics, not just talk about them. That’s why I don’t like empty rhetoric and platitudes in this leadership contest.
In a dig at Badenoch’s stance that the party needs to take stock and take some time to formulate policies for the future, Jenrick said:
We’ve just lost our worst ever electoral defeat, and the way you bring those people back is by slowly regaining their trust and confidence with substance, and not a plan tomorrow, but a plan today.
He said that one thing people hated about the Conservative party in recent years was “the disunity, the pettiness, the squabbling”. He continued:
That’s got to end if we’re ever going to regain the trust of the public and demonstrate that we are a professional and competent force again. A worthy opposition. A worthy future government of this country.
I don’t see politics in the way that some people do, that it’s all about left or right. What I want to do is focus the Conservative party on the common ground of British politics.
Jenrick claimed that polling showed he was “the best placed person … to bring back the Reform voters, whilst also persuading those Lib Dem and Labour voters to come back to us.”
In parliament Rachel Reeves has defended Labour’s plans for winter fuel payments by citing increases in other payments to pensioners.
PA Media reports she told MPs:
Because of our commitment to the triple lock, that the basic state pension and the new state pension will continue to rise. In fact, this winter the new state pension is worth £900 more than it was a year ago, and the new state pension is likely to rise by a further £450 next April.
Indeed, during the course of this parliament, because of the triple lock the new state pension is likely to be worth £1,700 more, much more than the value of the winter fuel payments.
Reeves was responding to Conservative MP for West Worcestershire, Harriett Baldwin, who had said “The living standards of a 90-year-old pensioner on a £13,500 income are falling sharply this winter, as a result of her decision to take away the winter fuel allowance.”
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper also said in the Commons that “the government does need to think again.”
Conservative leadership candidate Robert Jenrick is being interviewd by Tina Daheley on BBC Radio 2 at the moment. I will bring you any key lines that emerge.
In the House of Commons, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has just had a little dig at her predecessor Jeremy Hunt.
In response to one question, she said that “unlike the benches opposite” she had respect for the country’s economic institutions, including, she said, the Office for Budget Responsibility.
She also just raised a lot of laughs by accidentally referring to the budget being “yesterday” rather than tomorrow. The speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, admonished her yesterday for revealing budget details in advance.
Updated
Labour’s leader in Scotland, Anas Sarwar, has just issued a video in support of tomorrow’s budget, saying it will bring an end to “the era of austerity” and is “the budget Scotland needs”.
Echoing comments he made yesterday, Sarwar says in the video:
After fourteen years of tory failure, division and decline, Labour is turning the page, fixing the foundations, and rebuilding our country.
This first Labour budget will deliver on the promises made in the election, will deliver the first steps promised in our manifesto, will end the era of austerity here in Scotland and across the UK, will provide vital new investment for our public services, and prioritise economic growth.
This is the budget Scotland needs.
Labour’s first budget will:
— Anas Sarwar (@AnasSarwar) October 29, 2024
✅ deliver on the promises made in the election
✅ deliver the first steps promised in the manifesto
✅ end the era of austerity
✅ provide new investment for our public services
✅ prioritise economic growth pic.twitter.com/c9QRab4rxZ
Ipsos has published some polling it conducted between 11-14 October looking at attitudes to the NHS, and found that 65% agree with the premise set out by health secretary Wes Streeting among others that “the NHS is broken”.
Among Labour voters the feeling is stronger, with 73% agreeing with that assessment, and it is even more pronounced among people who voted Reform UK, with 77% agreeing with the sentiment.
Only 29% of people had confidence that Labour would be able to “fix” the problem, with optimism most pronounced among the 18-34 age group.
Conservative MPs are expected later today to hand in a petition calling on the Labour government to rethink its plan on means-testing the winter fuel payment, and instead making it universal, regardless of how much money a pensioner has.
PA Media reports shadow work and pensions secretary Mel Stride said they had gathered “over a quarter of a million signatures.”
He told them “This government chose to give well above inflationary pay rises to trade union paymasters when it came to wage settlements, and chose to take this money away from some of the most vulnerable people in the country. We don’t believe that’s right.”
Labour received significantly lower donations from trade unions during the 2024 election campaign than it did in 2015, 2017 and 2019.
Rachel Reeves will have more than one petition to look at ahead of her first budget speech tomorrow. Yesterday Leeds East MP Richard Burgon, who currently has the Labour whip suspended, presented a 50,000-strong petition calling for wealth taxes in the budget.
Burgon said:
The Tories have left behind a toxic mess of weak public finances, falling living standards and public services on their knees. The budget cuts and austerity measures that helped cause this situation cannot be part of the solution. Instead, the wealthiest in our society should be the ones to pay to fix the damage caused by the Tories and fund the investment our public services so desperately need.
Mel Stride, currently the shadow work and pensions secretary, told Sky News earlier today that the Conservative party had always “been on the side of lower paid people” but that he was concerned that reports of a rise in the minimum wage would put “pressure” on business.
Last night Tom Ambrose and Jessica Elgot reported that the Guardian understands that the national minimum wage is to increase by up to 6% next year, with more than one million low-paid workers in line for a pay rise.
Stride told Sky News it was the Tories who bought in the “National Living Wage”. That isn’t strictly true, as in his 2015 budget George Osborne simply rebranded what had been introduced under Tony Blair’s government by the National Minimum Wage Act 1998.
Stride told viewers:
We’ve always, particularly through tax cuts, been on the side of lower paid people. But I think what you can’t overlook is the pressure that some of this is going to be putting on businesses.
He claimed increases in the minimum wage were liable to make it “much more difficult for companies now to expand and recruit people and pay better wages,” and said “this is a government that does not understand business or growth.”
Incidentally, if you have lost track of the timings, it is Saturday 2 November when the Conservatives will announce whether Kemi Badenoch or Robert Jenrick will become the next leader of the opposition.
Both of their social media campaign teams have been quite busy today so far.
I’m not ashamed of our history.https://t.co/7I1nvnsNQE pic.twitter.com/KqkVwvjmEI
— Robert Jenrick (@RobertJenrick) October 29, 2024
Something exciting could be about to happen…….
— Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) October 29, 2024
This is our chance.
Let’s rebuild trust and renew our party, together.#VoteKemi ⭐ pic.twitter.com/Dd928abUxL
Times Radio have just published on their YouTube channel a 20 minute clip of Conservative leadership hopeful Kemi Badenoch being interview by Kate McCann. In it Badenoch – never shy of jumping into a culture war topic – claims “relentless outrage” has made it difficult for politicians to speak their minds.
Wes Streeting was very active on the media round this morning, and was asked a wide range of questions by different broadcasters. On ITV’s Good Morning Britain he was asked about the forthcoming vote on assisted dying in parliament, and said he had not intended to “wade into the debate” with his earlier comments. Last week he told Labour MPs he was against the proposed change in law.
Speaking this morning, PA Media quotes Streeting saying:
The government is neutral. Ministers are able to vote however we want. We’re subjected to a free vote.
I hadn’t actually intended to wade into the debate last week. I was asked the question at a private meeting of the parliamentary Labour party by a colleague, and I gave an honest answer.
I’ve come down this time on voting against the bill on the basis that I worry about palliative care, end-of-life care not being good enough to give people a real choice.
I worry about the risk of people being coerced into taking this route towards the end of their life.
And I also worry, even where you’ve got really loving families who are very supportive, I really worry about those people who think they’ve almost got a duty to die to relieve the burden on their loved ones, and I’ve had to weigh those issues up against the very powerful arguments on the other side of the argument as well.
I have huge admiration for my colleague, Kim Leadbeater, who’s bringing the bill forward, and ultimately it will be for parliament to decide. As a government we will implement whatever parliament decides.
The gender pay gap for UK workers reduced slightly over the past year, according to new data.
PA Media reports the Office for National Statistics (ONS) recorded a gap of 7% between male and female earners in April 2024.
Median pay for full-time employees has risen, according to the latest figures.
Latest from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2024
— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) October 29, 2024
Median pay for full-time employees was £728 a week in April 2024, up 6.0% from 2023. In real terms, their median weekly earnings were up 2.9% on the year, adjusting for inflation using the CPIH.
➡️ https://t.co/WBL2LpyCip pic.twitter.com/IpxNyiCVjB
Wes Streeting has defended NHS diversity, equality, and inclusion policies and programmes that impact on healthcare outcomes.
Speaking on GB News, the health secretary said:
On equality, diversity, and inclusion - for me, this comes down to what these people are actually doing, because, for example, black women are four times more likely to die in childbirth than white women.
Black men are twice as likely to die of prostate cancer than white men. Women, the majority of our country, are waiting, sometimes years for an endometriosis diagnosis, which is really common.
When it comes to tackling those health inequalities, many of which can be life and death, that’s where I want the focus to be.
However, Streeting did criticise what he called “total nonsense and a distraction” in some areas, citing somebody, he said, “lauding themselves as a practitioner in anti-whiteness.”
“I’ve got no truck for that kind of American import,” Streeting said.
Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe has this morning attacked diversity in the NHS, posting to social media to say “I couldn’t care less if the NHS workforce is ‘diverse’ or not. I care if it’s competent, and whether it delivers for patients.”
Streeting said “I don’t want the gap in our country in terms of your health and wellbeing to be wider, based on whether you’re rich or poor, whether you’re black or white, whether you’re a man or a woman. Those are the health inequalities I want to focus on.”
Chris Osuh is a community affairs correspondent for the Guardian
The Labour government has told the Guardian it will fulfil its manifesto pledge to include class disadvantage in the Equality Act after a report found a lack of social mobility is costing the UK £19bn a year.
The Opportunity Effect, a report produced by the Manchester-headquartered consumer co-operative Co-op and the cross-party thinktank Demos, found social mobility in the UK “appears to have stagnated”, impacting the country’s GDP growth.
In a statement provided to the Guardian in response to the report’s findings, a government spokesperson said it would “break down the barriers to opportunity” young people may face, and committed to “bring into force the duty in the Equality Act 2010 requiring public bodies to consider socio-economic disadvantage in their decisions,” a promise previously made in the Labour manifesto.
Section 1 of the Equality Act requires councils, the police and most government departments to assess whether they are addressing class inequalities, for example in health and education, housing and crime rates. It has been enacted in Scotland and Wales, but is not in force in England, after then-Home Secretary Theresa May dismissed it as “ridiculous” in 2010.
A government spokesperson said: “Ensuring people have the skills they need for the future is crucial to this government’s number one mission to grow the economy.
“We will unlock opportunities for our young people through a range of measures, including our new youth guarantee, to harness their talents and break down the barriers to opportunity they may face.
“We will also bring into force the duty in the Equality Act 2010 requiring public bodies to consider socio-economic disadvantage in their decisions.
“Through Skills England and our new growth and skills levy, we are working with businesses, unions, mayors and training providers to find and fill skills gaps across our country.”
As the Conservative leadership contest finally draws towards a close – if it feels like it has been going on forever remember the 1922 Committee met to decide the schedule for it way back on 22 July – Kemi Badenoch this morning is touting her endorsement from old hands Damian Green and David Davis.
.@DavidDavisMP & @DamianGreen know what it takes to go from Opposition to Government. They know things can get worse.
— Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) October 29, 2024
They’re from different wings of the party but have come together to deliver an important message. I’m grateful to have their support.
Please read their piece… pic.twitter.com/Zeyrz8PC5t
In a joint article published last night by the Telegraph, echoing Badenoch’s own expression that the contest was existential for the party, the pair wrote:
In 2024 … we have no God-given right to exist or to be heard. To every member yet to vote in this contest we say: this is a historic turning point for our party – do not sit this one out. Use your vote. Things can get worse for us. If we make a mistake now there may not be a Conservative party around to correct it.
In their endorsement they say:
Kemi has the star quality to get cut through. Kemi stands out as straight-talking and authentic, not qualities the public associate with the political class. Her tenacity will undo Keir Starmer across the despatch box. There is no doubt she is Labour’s worst nightmare. The more the public sees her, the more they will realise she offers a clarity of thought and vision that the country is crying out for.
Streeting: Labour not treating being in government like a 'popularity contest'
Health secretary Wes Streeting has said that Keir Starmer’s popularity rating has plummeted since coming into office because they are taking “tough decisions” that are putting the needs of the country ahead of concerns about the popularity of the party.
He told listeners of LBC Radio:
We are taking a whole bunch of decisions at the moment which are not going to make us very popular, because they’re tough decisions.
They are the right decisions, putting the national interest ahead of the party interest, and ultimately, people would judge us on our results at the next election.
The worst thing we could do now is duck the difficult decisions, resort to government by gimmick, sticking plaster politics, and treating politics as a popularity contest.
We have got to take the right decisions now to make sure this country is better placed for the long term.
That’s the leadership Keir Starmer is providing. That’s the leadership the chancellor will show tomorrow, and that’s what we’re all doing to turn our country around.
NHS will not be fixed in single budget, says Wes Streeting
Our deputy political editor Jessica Elgot has this report on Wes Streeting’s media appearances this morning:
The NHS will not be turned around in one budget, the health secretary, Wes Streeting, has warned, saying measures to be announced on Wednesday would “arrest the decline” amid significant reform of the health service.
Streeting told broadcasters new efficiencies in the health service would be the key quid pro quo for significant investment. The government is expected to announce a spending boost of at least 4% to the health budget.
Reeves said on Monday new cash would continue to drive down waiting lists, delivering more surgical hubs and radiotherapy machines – with the aim of an extra 40,000 appointments a week.
Streeting said on Tuesday he was confident there would be substantial improvements to the NHS over the course of the parliament. “I think people are realistic, you don’t fix the NHS overnight,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“You don’t fix it in a single budget, but over the course of this parliament, you will get the NHS back on its feet at the same time as making the right long-term decisions that will make the NHS fit for the future.”
Streeting also said he would not guarantee that the funding would make a difference in time to avert a winter crisis this year. “I will always face up to the challenges. I will not stop the difficult decisions or the fact that there are still problems to be solved, and you will see me on the frontline this winter, where there will still be challenges, because you can’t just wave away the pressures,” he said.
Read more from Jessica Elgot here: NHS will not be fixed in single budget, says Wes Streeting
Labour this morning have put out a pre-budget promotional video which makes a huge play out of the fiscal inheritance they have from the previous Conservative administration.
Using cases studies, the video claims “we have inherited a housing crisis”, “we have inherited a broken NHS” and “we have inherited dangerous streets”, then goes on to say “we have already begun the work of change.”
Keir Starmer’s social media accounts have shared the video with the message “Fixing the NHS. Rebuilding Britain. Protecting working people’s payslips. We are choosing a different path to deliver on our mandate of change.”
Fixing the NHS. Rebuilding Britain. Protecting working people’s payslips.
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) October 29, 2024
We are choosing a different path to deliver on our mandate of change. pic.twitter.com/klTahYzI2n
Former British colonies owe ‘debt of gratitude’, says Robert Jenrick
Britain’s former colonies should be thankful for the legacy of empire, not demanding reparations, according to the Conservative leadership candidate Robert Jenrick.
The MP and former minister said countries that were part of the empire “owe us a debt of gratitude for the inheritance we left them” in the form of legal and democratic institutions.
Jenrick made the comments in an article in the Daily Mail, pushing back against the growing momentum to provide reparations and justice to countries and people affected by transatlantic slavery.
Commonwealth leaders agreed at the weekend that the “time has come” for a conversation about reparations for the slave trade, and politicians and campaigners in Britain are due to host a second national conference on reparations on Sunday.
Keir Starmer was among 56 heads of government who signed a document at the Commonwealth summit that acknowledged calls for “discussions on reparatory justice” for the “abhorrent” transatlantic slave trade.
Starmer was criticised before the conference after he told reporters he wanted to “look forward” rather than have “very long endless discussions about reparations on the past”.
Jenrick accused Starmer of doing a U-turn on the issue and of “capitulating to those determined to tear our country down”.
Read more from Ben Quinn here: Former British colonies owe ‘debt of gratitude’, says Robert Jenrick
Badenoch: Tory leadership contest is 'neck and neck'
Kemi Badenoch, who is the bookies’ favourite to be the next Conservative leader, has told Times Radio that the contest is poised “neck and neck”.
Interviewed by Kate McCann, Badenoch told listeners:
People are tired of the party looking like it is not out working for the people out there. That is what I want to bring: integrity, and a focus on conviction and conservative values.
There is something very significant that is going on, we are picking a leader of the opposition. People have a choice.
And, you know, there are a lot of people who still haven’t voted. It is neck and neck. I’m not necessarily ahead, like the bookies say. It’s just what people are placing bets on.
And I want people to remember that this is not a general election, this is a leadership contest where we picking what kind of person we want.
In a reflective moment during the interview, Badenoch agreed that if she won it would change life for her and her family. She said:
This is a sacrifice, because I worry about the direction of the country.
I worry about a lot of decisions we make, and us not being honest with the public about the serious trade-offs that are going to be required, and not saying enough about how the world is becoming a more dangerous place.
And if I want to leave a better world for my children, and your children, all our children, I think that stepping up and putting my case forward is the right thing.
Badenoch: 'I love criticism. It helps me get better'
Somewhat contrary to the testy tone of her interview with Kate McCann on Times Radio, Conservative leadership hopeful Kemi Badenoch told listeners “I don’t mind criticism. Actually, I love criticism. It helps me get better.”
She argued that “I don’t like deliberate misrepresentation. People can throw out all sorts of random allegations and they get published and you say, well, no, that’s not true, but it keeps coming back again. Is it true that you said this? When nothing of the sort has happened.”
Badenoch went on to say “I keep going back to the fact that all these things are anonymous comments, often from people who maybe they don’t want me to succeed, maybe they don’t think that I should be the person in charge, and they will do whatever they can to stop that from happening. And it’s one of the reasons why I think that we need to move away from this endless sort of negativity and briefing.”
Badenoch gives testy leadership campaign interview
Kemi Badenoch has given a somewhat prickly interview with Times Radio’s political editor Kate McCann. The leadership contender was combative throughout, and fell back on one of her tried and tested media strategies, to try and walk back something controversial she has said and say it didn’t mean what everybody else says it meant, even when confronted with her own precise quotes.
In particularly McCann pushed Badenoch on whether she had claimed there was “a whiff of impropriety” about her rival Robert Jenrick.
Badenoch said:
Well, I’m not going to ask you to read out the full quotes, but I do remember what I said.
And if I could finish the point I was making, we have a problem. Now that the party has been defeated very badly, we are at a crossroads. We have one chance to get this right.
And I was making a point that integrity matters. I think that is important, and I’m very happy to talk about my integrity.
Now, if an interview asks me a question about my opponent, I will answer lightly, but I’ll go back to talking about myself.
What I do not like is when an interviewer asks a question, you answer it, and then they say, well, why were you talking about your opponent? When they just asked that.
As McCann tried to interject, Badenoch spoke over her, saying:
If I may finish, Kate, I think it is very important that politicians are allowed to say what they think without it constantly being twisted to create, you know, an attack on someone else.
Eventually McCann put the question directly to her, asking “so do you think there is a whiff of impropriety about Robert Jenrick?”, to which Badenoch said:
I’m not interested in talking about Robert Jenrick. I’m interested in talking about my campaign.
So that cleared that up.
Jeremy Hunt has stepped up his attack on the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) this morning, posting to social media:
The OBR must be politically impartial and the public and markets need to know that it is holding the government to account without fear or favour. I have written to the cabinet secretary to ask why basic rules of fairness are not being followed. If we are to keep the OBR out of the political fray he needs to act before it is too late.
The OBR must be politically impartial and the public and markets need to know that it is holding the government to account without fear or favour.
— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) October 29, 2024
I have written to the Cabinet Secretary to ask why basic rules of fairness are not being followed. If we are to keep the OBR out of… pic.twitter.com/iUsDEQTduA
Hunt has written to cabinet secretary Simon Case to complain that the government has seen this week’s OBR review in advance but that courtesy hasn’t been extended to the people who were part of the previous administration.
Keir Starmer will convene a “political” cabinet meeting this morning, without the usual civil servant attendees, to go through the fine print of tomorrow’s budget.
The House of Commons sits from 11.30am, and there will be oral questions for the Treasury, and progress to be made on the Great British Energy bill.
Wes Streeting has defended the government’s decision to extend the bus fare cap in England for another year, but at a higher level, by saying that without their intervention, the scheme would have ended completely.
Speaking on LBC radio, the health secretary said:
The money for the bus fare cap at £2 was running out and due to expire. Had we not taken any action, fares would have gone up as high as £10. We are taking action to make sure that they are capped at £3.
Streeting had been posed the question by Nick Ferrari, who asked the health secretary “would you agree that a lot of working people rely on busses to get to and from their place of work or to visit family? If you do concur, why on earth would the Labour party choose to increase the fare cap?”
The health secretary went on to say:
In our manifesto, we were very clear about the steps we would take to protect working people on income tax, national insurance and VAT.
People will be able to judge this measure [the £3 cap] in the round against the rest of the budget tomorrow, when they see a whole range of choices and trade-offs we’ve had to make.
I think when people see all of the measures in the budget tomorrow, they will see we are doing everything we can, as fairly as we can, to balance the books, fix the foundations of our economy and get growth back so that we can invest in our public services and put money back into people’s pockets.
We are expecting a ministerial written statement on the bus fare cap in England in parliament today.
On LBC radio the health secretary Wes Streeting tackled head on the criticism from speaker Lindsay Hoyle in parliament yesterday that the government was being “disrespectful” to MPs by trailing elements of tomorrow’s budget in advance.
He told listeners of Nick Ferrari’s show:
What I’m saying today [about NHS funding], and I should definitely say this for the benefit of the speaker, this isn’t new government policy. This is the delivery of the manifesto that we committed to at the general election.
Streeting: government already 'ramping up' additional NHS appointments in England
Health secretary Wes Streeting has claimed that the government is already “ramping up” a promised additional 40,000 weekly NHS appointments in England, though he said due to data lag he could not provide precise figures.
Speaking on LBC radio, Streeting said it would be a hard winter ahead for the NHS, but that tomorrow’s budget was putting a level of funding in place to arrest a decline in the health service.
He told listeners he would come back on the same show in a year’s time to demonstrate the progress made, saying:
I will come back on your programme to mark one year of a Labour government and tell you how many more appointments have been delivered in the first year of a Labour government compared to the previous year of Conservative government.
And therefore I will be able to confidently tell you that we will have honoured our promise to deliver 40,000 more appointments a week well within the first year of a Labour government. That was the promise we made. It is a promise we will keep.
Streeting said the government was sending in what he described as “crack teams of top clinicians” into hospitals in areas with the largest waiting lists and the most people off work sick.
Reiterating a line that he took on Monday, Streeting said:
I can’t pretend that there’s a magic wand that I can wave so that no one will be waiting on a trolley in the corridor this winter.
And nor am I going to say that is any more acceptable under a Labour government than it was under a Conservative government.
It is not acceptable.
And I am doing everything I can, as fast as I can, to turn the NHS around.
Streeting: private schools can mitigate VAT on fees 'if they’re the good charities they say they are'
Health secretary Wes Streeting has robustly defended Labour’s plans to end the VAT tax break for independent private schools.
Speaking on LBC radio, the health secretary said:
I would just say to independent schools, you have hiked your fees up with inflation-busting increases year after year after year since 2010 and now you’re pleading poverty.
If you are worried about whether children in your schools will continue to access your schools, you’ll have to cut your cloth in the way that state schools have had to.
In a barbed reference to the charitable status many schools have enjoyed over the years, Streeting continued:
They have hiked up their fees with inflation-busting increases for well over a decade, and they can, I’m sure, take steps to mitigate against children being forced to drop out if if they’re the good charities they say they are.
Welcome and opening summary …
Good morning, and welcome to our live coverage of UK politics on the eve of the first Labour budget for well over a decade. Here are your headlines …
Wes Streeting has said private schools can mitigate the impact of VAT rule changes "if they’re the good charities they say they are”
The health secretary also said the government was already ramping up additional appointments in the NHS in England
However, Labour ministers have said the budget will end neglect of “broken not beaten” NHS
Kemi Badenoch has said the Tory leadership contest remains “neck and neck” as it enters its final stretch
Data shows a loophole exempts 355 landowners in England from inheritance tax
Post-Brexit border checks are putting food security at risk, produce sellers warn
We spent a lot of yesterday watching senior Labour politicians explain that they couldn’t say in advance what would be in tomorrow’s budget, while also briefing out or announcing things that would be in the budget. Speaker Lindsay Hoyle delivered a broadside about that in the House in the afternoon, saying it was “disrespectful” to MPs. We will find out today whether that has made any difference to either the statements from the government, or the questions politicians get asked by broadcast media.
It is Martin Belam with you again today. The best way to get in touch with me is via email – martin.belam@theguardian.com.
