Inside Politics: Sunak criticised for making ‘wrong choices’ in spring statement

Labour says chancellor made ‘wrong choices’ in statement which critics say will do little to help poorest with rising energy bills, writes Matt Mathers

(via REUTERS)

Following days of fevered speculation about what measures might be introduced to ease the cost of living squeeze, Rishi Sunak delivered his spring statement to MPs in the Commons on Wednesday, with the headline announcements being a 5p cut to fuel duty and an increase of £3,000 to the threshold at which workers pay national insurance contributions. There was a promise of jam tomorrow too, with the chancellor promising to cut the basic rate of income tax from 20p to 19p by 2024. Despite all Sunak’s rhetoric about being a tax-cutting chancellor, families now face the heaviest tax burden since the 1940s – not to mention the biggest drop in their living standards since records began.

In today’s papers and news websites, he has been criticised for both not doing enough to help people on benefits and not going far enough on tax cuts. Sunak’s announcement on income tax appears to be a tactic to help prepare for the next general election, but the consensus this morning seems to be that he has not done enough to help voters in the here and now.

Inside the bubble

Commons action gets underway with culture questions at 9.30am. After that is attorney general questions at 10.30am followed by the weekly business statement by Mark Spencer, the leader of the house. The main business will be two backbench business debates on war pensions and armed forces compensation scheme payments and the impact of long Covid on the UK workforce.

Coming up:

– Chancellor Rishi Sunak on BBC Radio 4 Today at 8.10am

– Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves on talkRADIO at 9.05am

Daily Briefing

• ‘WRONG CHOICES’: Sunak’s spring mini-budget makes the front of most papers and news websites this morning, with several criticising the chancellor’s decision not to provide relief for people on benefits and others picking up on the news that, despite tax giveaways, Britain is on course to see its biggest fall in living standards since the1950s. For readers who might have missed Sunak’s address to MPs in Commons, here is a full list of what was announced and how it will affect your finances. Labour accused Sunak of making the “wrong choices” in his statement, with Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, telling MPs the chancellor “does not understand the scale” of the challenge amid rising fuel, food and energy prices. “There are always choices to be made, like who to tax and who to shield. Despite the chancellor’s reluctant measures, the facts are that he is still taking money out of people’s purses and wallets with an increase in national insurance contributions (NICs),” Reeves told Sunak. The chancellor appeared on LBC radio last night to defend his statement, saying that changes mean that most people will be better off. He also promised that “every penny” of cash raised through increased NICs will go “directly” to funding the NHS.

• TAKE TO THE STREETS: Today marks exactly one month since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and there are few signs that the bloody war is about to end any time soon, as fierce fighting continues near Kyiv and several other cities, with 100,000 people still trapped in besieged Mariupol, which Russian forces are flattening to the ground with constant shelling. To mark the one month of the invasion. Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukraine president, is calling on people everywhere to take to the streets to show their opposition to the war. “Come with Ukrainian symbols to support Ukraine, to support freedom, to support life,” Zelensky said in a video address last night spoken in English. “Come to your squares, to your streets, make yourselves visible and heard.” Zelensky’s call comes ahead of an emergency Nato summit in Brussels, which will be attended by a host of western leaders including Joe Biden, the US president and Boris Johnson. The prime minister will urge allies to “keep the flame of freedom alive” in Ukraine and vow to supply thousands more missiles to the military in Kyiv. In its latest update, the Ministry of Defence said that Russian forces have “almost certainly suffered thousands of casualties” during the invasion. “Russia is now likely looking “ to mobilise its reservist and conscript manpower, as well as private military companies and foreign mercenaries, to replace these considerable losses,” it added. We’ll have all the latest updates on our liveblog.

• ‘HALF ARSED’: All eyes were on Sunak’s spring statement yesterday but Labour leader Keir Starmer and the PM went head-to-head in a lively session of PMQs before the main event. Citing section 194 of the trades union and labour relations act of 1992, which says that firms are supposed to notify the secretary of state before they sack 100 people or more, Johnson said it appeared P&O Ferries had “broken the law” by sacking 800 workers without notice, as he vowed that the government would “take them to court”. “It looks to me as though the company has broken the law,” he told MPs. “We will be taking action therefore, and we will be encouraging workers to take action.” But doubt was cast on the claim later by the transport department, which said that the piece of legislation had been updated in 2018 due to the implementation of an EU directive. During the session, Starmer accused Johnson of delivering only “half-arsed bluster and waffle” on workers’ rights following the P&O Ferries scandal.The Labour leader hit out at Mr Johnson’s failure to stop the mass sacking of 800 seafarers, fired without warned by the ferry giant last week, saying the PM “didn’t lift a finger”.Starmer also said the PM was “all mouth no trousers” when it came to the practise of fire and rehire, which involves making workers redundant before giving them their jobs back on worse terms.

• NOT GOING AWAY: A majority of voters still believe that the PM should resign if fined by police over lockdown-breaching parties in Downing Street, according to a new poll. Johnson loyalist Jacob Rees-Mogg last week said that war in Ukraine had exposed the Partygate row as trivial “fluff” which should now be dismissed as a distraction. But almost two-thirds of voters (64 per cent) quizzed for The Independent by pollsters Savanta ComRes said the prime minister should go if issued with a fixed penalty notice by the Metropolitan Police – including 45 per cent who said he should quit whether or not he got a fine. Just 23 per cent said he should stay PM regardless of the outcome of the inquiry. Some 40 per cent of those who voted Conservative in 2019 said Mr Johnson should resign if fined, compared to 47 per cent who said he should stay on.

• BORDER CONTROL ROW: Dublin has issued a protest at the UK government’s insistence on imposing controls on non-Irish EU citizens crossing the border into Northern Ireland. Conservatives last night voted to reinstate for a US-style visa waiver requiring EU citizens who are not Irish to apply online for pre-travel clearance –known as Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) –before entering the UK at the Irish border. Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney denounced the decision as “regrettable” and said that Dublin’s concerns over disruption to free movement on the island of Ireland had been “ignored” by London. But Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis insisted that it would not result in the imposition of controls on the border with the Republic.

The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.

On the record

“It looks to me as though the company has broken the law. We will be taking action therefore, and we will be encouraging workers to take action.”

PM suggests P&O sacking of 800 workers was illegal.

From the Twitterati

“Understand Boris Johnson has invited every single Conservative MP to a dinner in Central London next Tuesday as he continues to try to heal the wounds of Partygate.”

Times associate politics editor Henry Zeffman hears Operation Save Big Dog is still going.

Essential reading

• Salma Shah, The Independent: Rishi Sunak is right, it’s not his fault – he can’t solve every problem
• John Rentoul, The Independent: Chancellor has set a trap for Labour at the next election
• George Monbiot, The Guardian: Tory MPs call the green transition ‘unaffordable’. Europe is proving that’s a lie
• David Patrikarakos, UnHerd: Russia will never want peace

Sign up here to receive this free briefing in your email inbox each weekday